[January 6, 2026] Antiquity Professor David Miano brings us ten of the most evil rulers of the Ancient World. I selected one to highlight.
Phalaris of Akragas: Akragas was a Greek colony on the southern coast of what is now Sicily. The city still exists and is now called Agrigento. Phalaris ruled as a tyrant there in the first half of the sixth century BC.
The Greek word tyrannos, from which we get the word tyrant, simply means a monarch, usually one who rose to power through popular support rather than by birth. But Phalaris appears to have been a tyrant in the modern sense as well.
During his rule, the domain of Akragas was greatly expanded, and he undertook numerous public works. In the literary tradition, Phalaris is portrayed as cruel, cunning, greedy, and in need of an armed bodyguard to protect him.
According to the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus, Phalaris was the first to use a particularly gruesome death machine called the “bronze bull,” which was life-size and hollow. The bronze worker who invented it, Perilaeus, told the tyrant, “If you ever wish to punish some man, Phalaris, shut him up within the bull and lay a fire beneath it; by his groanings the bull will be thought to bellow, and his cries of pain will give you pleasure as they come through the pipes in the nostrils.”
Phalaris then asked Perilaeus to get inside the bull to show him how it worked. Perilaeus did so, and Phalaris had him burned inside the bull. Now, of course, Diodorus lived 500 years after Phalaris, so the truth of this tale can be called into question.
However, the poet Pindar, our earliest source on Phalaris, who lived only 100 years after the tyrant, says this is one of his odes:
“But Phalaris, with his pitiless mind, who burned his victims in a bronze bull, is surrounded on all sides by a hateful reputation; lyres that resound beneath the roof do not welcome him as a theme in gentle partnership with the voices of boys.” – Pindar, Pythean Ode 1:95
It would seem that by Pindar’s time, Phalaris was already infamous for the bronze bull.
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NOTE: Professor David Miano is a historian of the ancient world. He studied Ancient History at the State University of New York at Buffalo (B.A. 1999) and the University of California, San Diego (M.A. 2003; Ph.D. 2006). He has taught courses at many colleges over the last 20 years. Miano’s chief research interests are in the history of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean in antiquity, ancient methods of time keeping, the chronology of the ancient world, the literary and intellectual history of ancient cultures, and comparative world history. He is the proprietor of the World of Antiquity YouTube channel, which has thousands of fans from around the globe. Follow this link to find him on the web.
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Good thing that Minnesota Gov. Timmie “Stolen Valor” Walz doesn’t have that power or he’d be cooking ICE agents in the bronze bull.
I’ve heard of this Bronze Bull before and its use as a torture device, but not Phalaris of Akragas. His name is to be infamous, so I do expect him to be burning in Hell for eternity. ✝️
A nasty boy. Looks like the Commies take their lessons from tyrants of the past like Phalaris of Akragas. Of course, we’ve all heard of this bronze bull being used as a death device that first makes you suffer horribly. What humans do to humans is incalculable. Evil exists and is real. Phalaris is evil. And, the world is full of his type. I hope he too suffered before his death.
Thanks Gen. Satterfield for highlighting ancient “leaders” who were brutal, nasty, and hopefully had short lives.
The Ancient World. Brutish and Short.
I ran across Prof. Miamo a couple of years ago on YouTube, and he does have a large presence there on social media. He is one of those people who can take very complex information and present it in such a way that the average person, like me (ha ha), can understand it. Very few folks have that ability. I commend him for being so outfront on issues that are recent discoveries in the ancient world.
A good scientist comes along occasionally, and this is one of those times. Dr. Miamo. He can make difficult things and ideas easy. Thank you sir.