Evil Lords uses the prism of bad rule or tyranny to enhance our understanding of political discourse from the ancient world to the Renaissance, elucidating premodern notions of sovereignty as well as the relation between ethics and politics, the individual and society, power, and propaganda. Eleven chapters present case studies exploring Hebrew, Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, early, high and late medieval, and Renaissance conceptions and representations of bad or tyrannical government. Since bad rule is always a perversion of the norm, its shifting conceptualizations shed light on historically specific assessments of what constitutes acceptable and legitimate political behavior. Meanwhile, political debate also reflects specific power structures, authorial intent, and audience expectations. Each of the essays, therefore, examines bad rule and its agents within the ideological frameworks and societal patterns of the respective periods, thereby painting a picture of historical and intellectual change. Despite these often profound variations, however, the volume also shows that it is meaningful to think of a Western tradition of tyranny in the premodern world that derived from shared roots in Classical and biblical thought and was further defined by ongoing cross-fertilization spanning two millennia. Thus, Evil Lords offers scholars and students of Western political theory, history, and literature a critical framework through which to revisit the longue durée of premodern political reflection.

Evil Lords uses the prism of bad rule or tyranny to enhance our understanding of political discourse from the ancient world to the Renaissance, elucidating premodern notions of sovereignty as well as the relation between ethics and politics, the individual and society, power, and propaganda. Eleven chapters present case studies exploring Hebrew, Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, early, high and late medieval, and Renaissance conceptions and representations of bad or tyrannical government. Since bad rule is always a perversion of the norm, its shifting conceptualizations shed light on historically specific assessments of what constitutes acceptable and legitimate political behavior. Meanwhile, political debate also reflects specific power structures, authorial intent, and audience expectations. Each of the essays, therefore, examines bad rule and its agents within the ideological frameworks and societal patterns of the respective periods, thereby painting a picture of historical and intellectual change. Despite these often profound variations, however, the volume also shows that it is meaningful to think of a Western tradition of tyranny in the premodern world that derived from shared roots in Classical and biblical thought and was further defined by ongoing cross-fertilization spanning two millennia. Thus, Evil Lords offers scholars and students of Western political theory, history, and literature a critical framework through which to revisit the longue duree of premodern political reflection.

Introduction: Hester Schadee and Nikos PanouChapter 1: The Discourse of Tyranny and the Greek Roots of the Bad King Nino LuraghiChapter 2: 'A king like the other nations': the Foreignness of Tyranny in the Hebrew Bible Jennie GrilloChapter 3: Discourse of Kingship in Late Republican Invective Yelena BarazChapter 4: Imperial Madness in Ancient Rome Aloys WinterlingChapter 5: Contradictory Stereotypes: 'Barbarian' and 'Roman' Rulers and the Shaping of Merovingian Kingship Helmut ReimitzChapter 6: Tyrannos basileus: Imperial Legitimacy and Usurpation in Early Byzantium John Haldon and Nikos PanouChapter 7: Evil Lords and the Devil: Tyrants and Tyranny in Carolingian Texts Sumi ShimaharaChapter 8: There Are No 'Bad Kings': Evil Counselors and Tyrannical Characters in Medieval Political Thought Cary NedermanChapter 9: A Crooked Mirror for Princes: King Wenceslas IV (1361-1419) between Medieval Literature and Modern Historiography Pavlina RychterovaChapter 10: 'I don't know who you call tyrants': Debating Evil Lords in Quattrocento Humanism Hester SchadeeChapter 11: Machiavelli's Prince and the Concept of Tyranny Gabriele PedullàBibliography