Asklemmy

There is a strong argument that but for the existence of tyrants humankind would have gone extinct before written history. They allowed humanity to evolve and flourish as the social creatures we are today.

While a tyrant does suppress freedoms, and costs lives (in both subjects and opponents) what they provided was stability and strength for the community. This stability enabled ALL discoveries up until, and including democracy. Set aside the luxury of contemporary morality when examining history to understand all its complexities.

I think the question really is, why do we glorify people at all? I know that the type of people you mention exist, but I hold them in no high regard. What causes people to admire and even worship others? Why don’t we as a species realize that we all meet the same end, and what causes people to believe that we somehow transcend the inevitable extinction of our species?

Answer these questions, and perhaps you answer your own.

But Alexander the Great literally has the Great in his name.

Julius Ceasar wasn't so bad. Parenti's book The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome is an interesting read, looking at his assassination as a reaction from the ruling class who felt threatened by his reformist policies that benefited the lower classes.

In general though we do seem to value the lives and experiences of people in even recent history as lesser. I don't know why, it's a good question.