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
Poems of the Past and the Present some of the collection's poems Aeschylean, and Hardy himself considered that the 'Doom' themes in the work overlapped with those in "The Dynasts". However, he had been careful in the collection's Preface to disclaim any organised philosophy therein, adding that "Unadjusted impressions have their value..." Among other notable pieces were his poem 'Well-beloved', on the transient succession of a man's love-ideal; and "The Darkling Thrush", the humorous piece "The Ruined Maid", and the dour sequence "In Tenebris". Poems of the Past and the Present Poems of the Past and the Present is the second collection of poems by English poet