Among the Greek kingdoms, Sicily was renowned for its tyrannical regimes. Its rulers exercised habitual violence against their populations and each other. Best known is Dionysus of Syracuse. He rose from humble origins, deposed the local democracy, established firm control and used it to create the most powerful empire in the Greek world. Since he thought more in terms of a nation than a city-state, and acted like a monarch, he is a forerunner of Alexander the Great.