Athenian coup of 411 BC state of Athens remained an anomaly, however, as the rest of the Greek city states were run either as tyrannies or, most often, by oligarchies. Both Thucydides and Aristotle wrote that "the revolution was provoked by defeat in Sicily." Despite the democracy in Athens, Greek tradition remained aristocratic, and the works of Homer celebrated an aristocratic world view, where the nobles made decisions and the commoners obeyed. The poems of Theognis of Megara (from the sixth century BC) and the Theban poet Pindar (of the fifth century BC) were popular among the Athenian nobles at this time, casting democracy as
Siege of Tauromenium (394 BC) level. The Sicel town is said to have another acropolis, which probably occupied the place of the Greek Theater. The western gate of the city was situated on the south wall. The city overlooked the site of Naxos, which was the first Greek colony in Sicily, and from that place the aggression of the Greeks against Sicels began. The Sicels were determined to hold on to Tauromenium, which was a gift from Carthaginians who had never attacked them, and had enabled them to recapture the lands of their forefathers. The most famous siege in Greek history, that of Troy, was