So for some context, I'm writing a semi-fantasy short-story set in roughly 300 bc in ancient greece, and there is a moment where an emperor thinks he is being deposed, and he references the rise of the athenian democracy, and brutus of rome. Except that brutus of rome was some hundreds of years after this story is supposed to be set, so I just realised I needed another.
I've done a bit of searching, but I'm not sure what would be the most well-known in the context of the time, if anyone could point me in the right direction? The kind of overthrowing that would be well-known to anyone in the era?
PS: My first time posting so please let me know if I did something wrong. Thanks in advance amazing people!
there is a moment where an emperor thinks he is being deposed, and he references the rise of the athenian democracy, and brutus of rome. Except that brutus of rome was some hundreds of years after this story is supposed to be set
Brutus is just fine! Your character isn't thinking of the Brutus that was involved in the assassination of Caesar, they're thinking of his much more glorious ancestor Lucius Junius Brutus, renowned in legend as the overthrower of the tyrant Tarquinius (the last of Rome's kings) and essentially the founder of the republic.
Interesting question! One possible example would be Syracuse, which oscillated back and forth between being a tyranny and democracy, as you can read about in these two threads by u/Iphikrates and this one by u/XenophonTheAthenian. If the story takes place in 300 BC, your character might think back just a few decades to the exile of Dionysius from his city and Timoleon's restoration of democracy