Bacchiadae

Greek social class

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June 17, 2026

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The Bacchiadae were an exclusive clan that held a monopoly on political power and citizenship in ancient Corinth. This aristocratic group, likely numbering no more than a couple of hundred, controlled the city-state during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. Their wealth and influence stemmed from Corinth's strategic location on the Isthmus of Corinth, controlling vital trade routes between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, as well as between the Aegean and Ionian seas.123

However, internal disagreements and the growing envy of other Corinthian families led to their downfall. Around 657 BCE, Cypselus, who was only partially a Bacchiad, overthrew the clan and established a tyranny, marking the first well-documented tyranny in Greece. This event signaled a shift away from the exclusive rule of the Bacchiadae, making power more generally available.321

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ancient Greek civilization
Bacchiadae and Eupatridae
…of a single clan, the Bacchiadae. They perhaps numbered no more than a couple of hundred. At Athens there was a general class of Eupatridae, a word that just means “people of good descent”—i.e., aristocrats. (The word may have had a simultaneous but narrower application to one single genos. This,…
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…of a single clan, the Bacchiadae. They perhaps numbered no more than a couple of hundred. At Athens there was a general class of Eupatridae, a word that just means “people of good descent”—i.e., aristocrats. (The word may have had a simultaneous but narrower application to one single genos. This,…
Read More