From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Lemma.
Tyrannicide here is an adjective meaning tyrant-killing; the printed plural tyrannicides modifies desseins, designs or intentions. The indictment says that Brotteaux cast suspicion on patriotic generals by attributing such designs to them. This is the prosecution’s hostile account, not an independently established description of his intentions or those of the generals. There is also a problem in the supplied wording: the warning quoted immediately afterwards imagines a victorious soldier swallowing the people, a threat of tyranny rather than of killing a tyrant. The earlier narrative gives Brotteaux’s warning in a similar form, with the people’s worship of soldiers made explicit. The supplied English preserves the anomalous adjective as ‘tyrannicidal’; the edition’s note identifies the apparent inconsistency. Neither ‘tyrannical’ nor an explanation of how the discrepancy arose should be silently substituted for what this source prints.
Places to read
- Chapter XIX, paragraph 29Frenchun de ces porteurs d’épée que vous divinisez vous avale tous: one of these sword-bearers whom you deify swallows you all. Brotteaux’s earlier direct speech supplies the relevant warning about military domination. This is contextual evidence for the later indictment, not an occurrence of tyrannicide.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 6Frenchdes desseins tyrannicides: designs to kill tyrants; tyrannicidal designs. The adjective belongs to the indictment’s characterization of Brotteaux’s speech. The supplied English retains its literal sense, while editorial note c24n03, not the narrator, explicitly flags the mismatch with the warning that follows.