Abstract
This paper elaborates on the early development of a ‘canon’ of Roman tyrants in imperial Rome. Testimonies from Flavius Josephus, Quintilian, Lucan, Seneca the Younger, Seneca the Elder and Cicero are taken into account in re- verse order, toward the origins of the ‘canon’. The autocracy experienced under Caligula and Nero especially stimulated the process. At the beginning, Roman autocrats were recognized among the main leaders of late Republican Rome, notably Caesar, and Sulla before him. In the background, Alexander the Great provided an inspirational model. Furthermore, Seneca the Elder’s anti-alexandrism may imply a concealed critic against Augustus. Finally, in the authorial series Lucan and the two Senecas show that the Annaei played a distinguished role in the process. Their influence may be confirmed by the attribution to Seneca the Elder of the text of P.Herc. 1067, significantly found in the villa of the Calpurni Pisones at Herculaneum.
