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How did Pericles distinguish a law from the coercion used by a tyrant?
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Philosophy of law
Plato, marble portrait bust copied from an original of the 4th century bce; in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.
In the context of the philosophy of law, the Athenian statesman Pericles distinguished law from the coercion of a tyrant by emphasizing the source and process of the directive.
According to an account by the historian Xenophon, Pericles argued that law is defined as whatever the sovereign power of the state enacts and directs to be done after proper deliberation. By this definition, he explicitly denied that mere compulsion or force exerted by a tyrant qualifies as law.1
This distinction highlights the principle that legitimate law requires a deliberative process by the state's sovereign authority, rather than the arbitrary, self-interested dictates of an individual ruler.1