From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Tyrannicide literally means the killing of a tyrant, or one who has committed the act. Typically, the term is taken to mean the killing or assassination 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, or to the killing of a former tyrant. Sometimes, the term is restricted to killings undertaken by people who are actually subject to the tyrant. The term is also used to denote those who actually commit the act of killing a tyrant: i.e., Harmodius and Aristogeiton are called 'the tyrannicides'.
Throughout history, many leaders have died under the pretext of tyrannicide. As there exists no objectively defined criteria for a "tyrant", many rulers and heads of state had been considered as such by their enemies but not by their adherents and supporters - correspondingly making debatable their death's definition as "tyrannicide". Some examples of those who have died under the banner of tyrannicide include (arranged by date):
- Hipparchus, a ruler of Athens, stabbed in 514 BC by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, considered by some to be the original tyrannicide.
- Julius Caesar, Roman Dictator, stabbed in 44 BC by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and numerous others (Liberatores).
- Caligula, Roman Emperor, stabbed in 41 by Cassius Chaerea and other Praetorian Guards.
- Commodus, Roman Emperor, strangled and poisoned in 192 by Narcissus and his mistress Marcia.
- Gustav III, King of Sweden, shot in 1792 by Jacob Johan Anckarström.
- Umberto I, King of Italy, shot in 1900 by Gaetano Bresci.
- William McKinley, President of the United States, shot 1901 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.
- Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, killed by Bolsheviks in 1918.
- Mehmed Talat, Minister of Interior Affairs and then Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, killed by Soghomon Tehlirian in 1921.
- Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and the acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, assassinated in 1942 by Czechoslovak soldiers.
- Benito Mussolini, Italian Fascist and Duce, executed in 1945 by Walter Audisio and other Italian partisans.
- Anastasio Somoza García, dictator of Nicaragua, shot in 1956 by Rigoberto López Pérez.
- Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, shot in 1961 by Antonio de la Maza with the aid of ten other conspirators.
- Park Chung-hee in South Korea, shot in 1979 by Kim Jaegyu.
- Nicolae Ceauşescu, communist leader of Romania, executed in 1989 after being named as a tyrant.
- Saddam Hussein, executed by the Iraqi Transitional Government in 2006, alleging that Hussein was a tyrant.
Tyrannicide in fiction
Tyrannicide is a popular literary trope. Many works of fiction deal with the struggle of an individual or group of individuals to overthrow and kill an unjust tyrant. Often the tyranny is caused by an usurper to a royal throne, where the conclusion restores the proper heir. Children's literature frequently deals with the subject. Folk tales like The Nutcracker include the act, as do some video games series, like The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox. Classical examples in Disney animation include The Lion King or The Little Mermaid which both involve the tyrannical takeover of a monarchy. Fantasy works like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, or Star Wars all deal with killing tyrants. V for Vendetta is a popular comic and film to deal with tyrannicide.Template:Citation needed Besides Julius Caesar, a number of William Shakespeare's plays deal with the subject, including Hamlet, Macbeth, and The Tempest.