Tyrants and Kings in the Latin Theatre (from Naevius to Accius)

Abstract

This paper aims at showing the importance of early Latin theatre with respect to the Roman view of forms of monocratic power such as monarchy and tyranny. While Plautus provides us with fundamentally neutral or positive examples of tyrants and kings, other playwrights of the third and second centuries BC such as Naevius, Terentius, Pacuvius and Accius propose a multifaceted image of these figures, indicating the ambivalent position of kings and tyrants in the Roman collective imagination of that period.