Tyrannicide

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tyrannicide, similar to regicide, literally means the killing of a tyrant.

Typically, the term is taken to mean the killing of tyrants for the common good. The term tyrannicide does not apply to tyrants killed in battle or killed by an enemy in an armed conflict. It is rarely applied when a tyrant is killed by a person acting for selfish reasons, such as to take power for themselves. Sometimes, the term is restricted to killings undertaken by people who are actually subject to the tyrant.

Not all overthrows of tyrants involve tyrannicide because the tyrant my either be killed in battle or kill themselves (in which cases it is not a tyrannicide), or they my be deposed and not loose their lives.

To be a tyrannicide the deceased ruler must be a tyrant see list of tyrants. Examples of a tyrannicide include:

• Hipparchus (527 BC-514 BC), son of Pisistratus; Hipparchus was murdered by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the original tyrannicides.
• Julius Caesar murdered by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.