Appunti sull’uso del termine τυραννος/tyrannus nelle fonti letterarie di lingua greca e latina fra I secolo a.C. e I d.C. (a partire da Cicerone)

This work is intended as a starting point for studying the lexical and ideological use of the word tyrannos/tyrannus in a Greek/Latin bilingual perspective. The term tyrannos, used in Greek literary texts from the 7th century BC, spread to Rome in its transliterated form tyrannus starting from the 3rd century BC, mainly through Accius’ tragic works. It was later used in oratory, historiography and declamation.
This work aims to compare the occurrences of the term tyrannos/tyrannus with those of the words related to the definition of power (sometimes used as synonyms, other times as antonyms) rex/basileus, monarchos in the works of Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch; these authors, due to their bipolar tendency between Greek and Roman world, are particularly relevant to the comparative analysis of the political and ideological values that the aforementioned terms acquire.

Keywords: Tyrannos/tyrannus, political lexicon, Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Greek/Latin bilingualism