Il tirannicida imperfetto. Sen. contr. 4.7 tra retorica e diritto

Abstract

The article examines a controversia, transmitted in excerpts, from the collection of Seneca the Elder. The protagonist is a man who, after killing the tyrant by whom he was caught in flagrant adultery, demands the prize due to the tyrant slayer according to the declamatory law. After briefly outlining the features that connect the controversia to the narrative genre to which it belongs, the authors proceed to analyse it in relation to the rhetorical doctrine of the status causae, which serves as its background. Their analysis focuses in particular on the issue of the relationship between intent and its concrete realization, as well as on the distinction between the immediate cause and the indirect cause that led to the tyrant’s death.

Keywords : Tyrant; tyrannicide; adulterer; definitio; intent.