Resumen de The pandemic of tyranny: The virus of hatred and other dangers faced by democracy during a pandemic – The Thirty Tyrants of Athens and the prevention of tyranny by civic humanism
This chapter deals with some of the dangers of the “pandemic” of tyranny that can be made worse during a time of a medical pandemic. In any event, it can result in an attempt to subvert a democratic regime towards more conservative and reactionary political forms. The author studies the case of the Thirty Tyrants of Athens (a result of Athens´s defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War and after the death of Pericles during the pandemic that decimated Athens when it was sieged by Sparta) who substituted democracy with an oligarchy. A fierce repression ensued in which Socrates died, a symbol of the free thought of democratic Athens. The author analyzes the effects of tyranny on people and the Renaissance humanists´ desire to always be vigilant about tyrannical government. He focusses on the civic humanists Francesc Eiximenis (Valencian Kingdom, Crown of Aragon) and Coluccio Salutati (Florence).
