Mubarak and Ben Ali comas: What would Tacitus say?

From Infowars and The Times.

So the story is that Mubarak and Ben Ali are now both desperately ill — indeed, it is said, in a coma. And there have been a handful of sharp comments, wondering what the “Deposed Dictator Syndrome” (DDS) actually is — and how convenient it might be as a protective device against assassination.
I couldn’t help thinking how Roman it all looked. There is a whole series of similar scenarios, brilliantly concocted by the brilliant Tacitus (I say ‘concocted’ because he cant possibly have known what went on). They are all centred on the grimy last moments of autocrats and dictators.
The basic rule for Tacitus is that despots don’t die a natural death...