These two books, together with the first in the series (F. Canali de Rossi, La tirannide in Grecia antica [2012]), may be considered in every respect to be a single work physically divided into three volumes, of which we shall look at the second and third.

The books are written in continuous narrative without clear divisions into chapters and with minor clarification epigraphs in the margin to guide the reader to each concrete point in the story. This lack of organisation into chapters makes reading the text by themes more difficult; none the less, the presence of indexes of names, Greek words and sources allows the precise page on which any of these are mentioned to be accessible. Despite its title, this work deals with more aspects than the tyrannies, strictly speaking, and ample tracts are dedicated to their chronology and other issues such as debates on the different approaches to economic theory taken by earlier historians.

The first of these books opens with a discussion on the social and economic situation in Bacchiad Corinth, where this aristocracy had assumed all the city's most important functions. It was opposed by the actions of Cypselus, whose origins and accession to power are told by C.d.R. in a narration closely resembling in other respects the literary qualities of Herodotus' tale. The greater part of his argument is centred on describing Cypselus as representative of the Corinthian rural environment as opposed to the commercial and cosmopolitan Bacchiad aristocracy. On the manner of the tyrant's accession to power from the position of polemarch, C.d.R. enters into a detailed excursus seeking parallels in other contemporary poleis, such as Athens, which leads him to consider the dissimilar results that tyranny had on the two cities: democracy in Athens and a more subdued form of oligarchy in Corinth, to which C.d.R. returns at other points throughout the work. From here, C.d.R. examines the last years of the tyranny at Athens and the transition to the system created by Cleisthenes, to which further reflections on the role played by the Alcmaeonidae in the history of Athens are added. He subsequently returns to the much-debated subject of Periander of Corinth's chronology, defending the high chronology and therefore dismissing any relationship with the time of Peisistratus, which allows him to criticise the trend towards a low chronology, especially favoured after Beloch, whose analysis has been widely contested. He makes valuable observations on the principal moment chosen by Herodotus as the starting point for his tale (the reign of Croesus) and the mechanisms employed by him to establish synchronisms between this character and all those relating to him; he also unfolds a shrewd argument for the question of how Herodotus and other authors in ancient times dealt with the coexistence and interaction of individuals from several generations, especially in the presence of personages such as Croesus, who is key to the construction of a chronology but who only reigned for fourteen years, which causes important distortions in a pattern based on a succession of generations that usually spanned a greater number of years.

The final part of the first of these books focuses on an analysis of the Sicyonian tyranny. This also poses considerable chronological problems, and the second book, without any linking features, opens with this theme. Herodotus' esteem for Cleisthenes of Sicyon is tied to the close relations Herodotus established with the Alcmaeonidae, to whom C.d.R. likewise dedicates several pages. C.d.R. goes on to analyse the traditions regarding the Orthagorids, this family's genealogy and its problematic chronology, with a tendency to accept the traditional dates, which place the onset of the tyranny in Sicyon in the 40s of the seventh century.

Regarding the social foundations of the tyrannies, C.d.R. writes at length on the economic structure of the ancient poleis, offering a critique of primitivist and modernist positions. His analysis, however, is closer to the latter, especially when it comes to accepting a relationship between political changes, for example in Corinth, and the contemporary development of Corinthian pottery, which he attempts to link to the passage from Bacchiad government to the tyrant Cypselus. The underlying idea is that both intervened in preparing and promoting, respectively, the great expansion of Corinthian pottery (and other products) that took place during the late proto-Corinthian period which, according to C.d.R., already belonged to the government of Cypselus. This appraisal of the pottery industry is also used to refute low chronologies, which authors such as É. Will had accepted for the onset of tyranny in Corinth (Korinthiaka. Recherches sur l'histoire et la civilisation de Corinthe des origines aux guerres mediques [1955]). In any case, the debate over the role of trade in the economy of the poleis is not closed, and in C.d.R.'s final discussion we perceive the idea that perhaps the time has come definitively to abandon positions that are excessively vague, such as those implied in the above-mentioned concepts of primitivism and modernism.

This debate leads to what, in C.d.R.'s view, is the basis of Greek society: the citizen-soldier, the peasant hoplite, with which the book ends. In addition, two appendices provide a summary of the visions of Gaetano de Sanctis and Anthony Andrewes, respectively, on the Greek tyrannies.

Both books include brief bibliographies, which are by no means exhaustive – and certain absences are difficult to comprehend. The critical apparatus contains mostly citations from the relevant sources and, on occasions, the actual passages complete with their translation into Italian. However, direct references to the bibliography relating to the many themes mentioned in the books are missing. Moreover, the absence of chapters and headings, and the succession of subjects dealt with in the text – sometimes with no clear separation – does not make this work easy to read. It does, however, contain interesting and suggestive ideas which, with a better and more systematic distribution of the material, would have stood out more effectively.