Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy Fiesco – along with Lessing’s ‚Emilia Galotti‘ – should be seen in the tradition of the republican tragedy as written by Voltaire (‚Brutus‘, ‚La Mort de César‘), Gottsched (‚Sterbender Cato‘), Bodmer (‚Julius Caesar‘, ‚Marcus Brutus‘) and Patzke (‚Virginia‘). In this tradition, the heroes of the Roman Republic are flawless opponents of brutal tyrants. In ‚Emilia Galotti‘ Lessing changes this device by ascribing a certain amount of guilt (Aristotle’s “hamartia”) to Odoardo Galotti and his daughter Emilia. In Fiesco Schiller transforms the traditional black and white opposition of republican hero to tyrant: On the side of the hero is the true republican Verrina, but also the traitor Fiesco, a ‘Catilina’, who changes from republican hero to a man craving power; on the side of the tyrant there is the brutal Gianettino Doria but also the wise old Andrea Doria. The drama ends as a tragedy because a true republican state cannot be established.