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Recensione al volume di P. Autino, Stefano e Neera. Storia di una coppia ateniese di 2400 anni fa, Viterbo, Dialoghi (Intrecci), 2023, pp. 150

Through four case studies I discuss the importance and frequency of the appearance of weapons (an important element of epic imagery) in funerary poetry, and its relation to representations of arms on gravestones and monuments in the Hellenistic period, geographically ranging from Lycia and Caria to the Black Sea, from mainland Greece to the Aegean islands. One of the most common features of poetic epitaphs for soldiers (including citizens, mercenaries, and soldiers belonging to royal armies) is the celebration of the military valor (arete) of the deceased; on the other hand, except for the spear, weapons are not mentioned often in funerary poetry. When they are not mentioned in the epitaph, or when an epitaph is not present, weapons are sometimes represented on the funerary monument itself, in the form of reliefs or paintings, either in the context of a battle scene, or carried by the standing deceased, or simply as isolated objects, as symbols of his profession or social rank in life.

In the Anthologia Palatina, apart from the ‘Simonidean’ pieces, are included very few epitaphs on specific individuals deceased in histrical battles, which could have been originally conceived for an inscriptional use (most of them are Hellenistic). Only an epitaph, very simple and of almost no artistic value (AP, 7, 228) and located in a thematic, Meleagrian section, can be closely compared to many actual inscriptional epitaphs of the Roman period and from the Middle East, often inscribed on family tombs/dovecotes and mainly commissioned by military veterans; close parallels with Late Antique inscriptional epitaphs also bears AP, 7, 678, for Soterichos. The paper discusses the possible source for these two epitaphs.

La monografia contiene una introduzione generale su Clidemo (cenni biografici, opere, interessi e caratteristiche, trasmissori), seguita da edizione critica, testo greco, traduzione italiana e commento dei testimonia e dei fragmenta.

Il capitolo illustra la ricerca dell'equilibrio nella Grecia del IV secolo a.C.

The role of the economy in Athenian politics has been prominent since the second half of the fifth century BC. The consideration of the political and financial crises that affected Athens has made it possible to detect significant changes in the management of financial resources between the fifth and fourth centuries. We will try to demonstrate how, often, a state of emergency has led to change, even in the long term, transforming initially extraordinary institutions into indispensable means for maintaining the management of the economy. The establishment of extraordinary magistracies, the specialization of public offices, the complexity reached by the Athenian financial system are a non-negligible index.

L’articolo esamina i criteri di selezione dei frammenti comici da parte di Plutarco, discutendone i contenuti: l’aspetto fisico di Pericle, la sua presunta intemperanza sessuale, il rapporto con Aspasia, l’assimilazione a Zeus (collegata con l’eloquenza, ma che nasconde un’accusa di tirannide), l’imperialismo democratico, l’inefficienza, le responsabilità nello scoppio della guerra del Peloponneso, la strategia seguita (che gli procurò accuse di viltà). La conclusione cui si perviene è che per Plutarco i comici sono quasi sempre uno strumento per documentare le critiche dell’opposizione a Pericle: sono, per così dire, il risvolto “nero” della biografia, che il biografo non accoglie (anzi talvolta ne prende apertamente le distanze), ma mette a disposizione dei lettori., The paper examines Plutarch's criteria for selecting the comic fragments, discussing their content: Pericles' physical appearance, his alleged sexual intemperance, his relationship with Aspasia, his assimilation to Zeus (linked to eloquence, but concealing an accusation of tyranny), democratic imperialism, inefficiency, responsibility for the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, and the strategy he followed (which brought him accusations of cowardice). The conclusion one comes to is that for Plutarch the comedians are almost always a tool for documenting the criticism of the opposition to Pericles: they are, so to speak, the 'black' side of the biography, which the biographer does not embrace (indeed sometimes openly distances himself from), but makes available to his readers.

L'articolo contiene una bibliografia ragionata di storia antica, che, con riferimento a monografie e volumi miscellanei editi nel corso dell'anno 2021, spazia sull'intero complesso della storia greca e romana, prendendone in esame l'intero arco cronologico di sviluppo, la più ampia gamma possibile di differenti aree tematiche ed ambiti di ricerca, nonché la produzione di comunità scientifiche di diversa matrice linguistica e culturale., The article contains a reasoned bibliography of ancient history, which, with reference to miscellaneous monographs and volumes published during the year 2021, ranges over the entire complex of Greek and Roman history, examining the entire chronological period of its development, the widest possible range of different thematic and research areas, as well as the production of scientific communities of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Il volume raccoglie gli interventi tenuti nel corso della Summer School 202 della Scuola di Dottorato in Studi Umanistici - Tradizione e contemporaneità.

L'articolo considera il racconto di Tucidide sulla peste di Atene del 430/29, cercando di individuare le tracce di cambiamenti di comportameno e di mentalità, The article considers Thucydides' account of the plague in Athens in 430/29, trying to identify traces of changes in behaviour and mentality

Il contributo considera il carattere del miele come cibo legato alla civilizzazione e all’uscita dallo stato ferino, come il grano e il vino; prende poi in esame le fonti relative all’esistenza di miele tossico; infine, mette in evidenza l’incongruenza tra l’idea di cibo divino e quella di cibo velenoso., The paper considers the character of honey as a food linked to civilisation and to leaving the feral state, like wheat and wine; it then examines the sources relating to the existence of toxic honey; finally, it highlights the inconsistency between the idea of divine food and that of poisonous food.

Modern scholars have long favored the study of archaic and classical Greece, neglecting the Hellenistic age: this also applies to studies of food and symposia. In recent decades, however, this situation has changed and studies on food and symposia in the Hellenistic age have also increased. To clarify as much as possible the reality of the symposia of the Macedonian aristocracy, this paper analyzes a long passage of Athenaeus (4, 1-5 [128a-130d]), which describes the wedding banquet of a certain Caranus, aliter ignotus: the pomp and richness of this banquet were truly unimaginable for Greece.

Macedonia was a peripheral area of Greece ruled by a king, primus inter pares among other aristocrats. Macedonia was rich in raw materials long exploited by Greek cities founded on the coast. But in 359 BC the accession to the throne of the young Philip II changed the situation completely: thanks to his abilities, in about 20 years Macedonia became the hegemonic power of all Greece.

Books XVIII-XX of Diodorus Siculus’ Historical Library focus on the history of the twenty years following the death of Alexander the Great. Seleucus is one of the main protagonists of this history: therefore he is mentioned many times in Diodorus' text, particularly in book XIX, in the chapters on the so-called Third Diadoch War. Seleucus, instead, is, almost completely absent in Book XX, devoted to the years between 311 and 302 BC: Diodorus ignores the events of those years that occurred in the territories east of Syria, where Seleucus was located. Seleucus reappears only in the last chapters of Book XIX, when he arrives in Anatolia with his army to fight with his allies, Lysimachus, Cassander and Ptolemy, against Antigonus the One-Eyed and his son Demetrius the Besieger.

Biographies of Kings and Cities: Evolution of a Poetic Genre between Epic and Elegy: Analysis of the evolution of narrative elegy between the 4th and the 1st century BCE, with particular focus on the foundation and history of cities (e.g. «The Pride of Halikarnassos»), and on the celebration of military deeds of rulers, leaders and common citizens. Specific attention is given to the intersection of elegy with other literary genres (epic, epigram, ktiseis poems in hexameters, lyric poetry) and to the context of the performance.

The term "Hellenistic globalization" refers to the political-military process that, in the age of Alexander the Great, led to the final overcoming of the bipolarity between the Greek world and the Persian empire, which had characterized the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean for a long time. In this globalization, Alexander the Great and his Successors adopted the political-military organization that had been created by the Persian king Darius I in 519 BC and which was later borrowed also by the Romans who created a large network of provinces. Thanks to the epopee of Alexander and of the Hellenistic rulers, therefore, the government system of the great Eastern empires was assimilated by Macedonia first and later by Rome, up to including all the territories overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

The chapter frames the history of classical Greece in a geopolitical perspective.

The chapter frames the history of archaic Greece in a geopolitical perspective.

The concept of translatio imperii which, in the most wellknown and widespread scheme in the ancient world, consists in the succession Assyrians - Medes - Persians - Macedonians, has by now become an interpretative category of world history. In the ancient world, the first traces of the translatio imperii, even if still only Asian, can be found in Herodotus. After then the Macedonian world is added during the Hellenistic period and, starting from the 2nd century BC, the power of Rome, often described by Roman historiography as the final and definitive one. Christian historiography too uses the scheme of the translatio imperii, joining the models of Greek-Roman and Jewish historiography, as we see in the Historiae adversus paganos by Paulus Orosius, written between 417 and 418 AD, in the hope (or better in the illusion) that the continuity of the Roman empire (by then become Christian) was still assured.

The volume systematically analyzes the history of geopolitics in the Mediterranean basin, including the Near East, during the period between the second millennium BC and the sixth century AD, given that in the first mid-seventh century AD Arabs' arrival marked a clear break between late antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Questo contributo analizza la presenza e il trattamento di esuli e rifugiati politici nella Grecia antica. Esso individua le tipologie note di esuli, indaga la percezione dei rifugiati da parte sia dei paesi di origine sia dei paesi ospitanti e inquadra il fenomeno dell'esilio nel suo contesto giuridico.

The contribution examines the position of the metics in Athens from a legal and social point of view

Lydia, a region of ancient civilization, traditionally closely tied to the Greek world, was after the Persian conquest an important outpost of the relations between the Achaemenid empire and the Greeks. Sardis, the capital city of the Lydian kingdom and later of the satrapy of Lydia (Sparda, i.e. Sardis, for the Persians), was the most notable city of coastal Asia Minor. The satraps who succeeded one another in that seat pursued (on behalf of the Great King and often also autonomously) an intense policy of complex relations with the Greeks of Asia Minor and of mainland Greece. About one of these satraps, Pissuthnes (ante 440-15 B.C.), son of Hystaspes and probably a member of the royal family, the sources give us some sporadic pieces of information, which enable us, however, to reconstruct a coherent anti-Athenian policy, inserted in the context of the so-called Peace of Callias of 449 (in any way we want to interpret it).

Questo articolo analizza le argomentazioni giuridiche di Eussiteo nel processo contro Eubulide (Dem. 57) e propone una nuova analisi della procedura dell’ephesis. In questo quadro si sostiene che la strategia forense di Eussiteo non risulta solo pertinente alla questione in oggetto - dimostrare la sua condizione di cittadino legittimo (gnesios polites), in quanto nato da due genitori cittadini - ma è anche caratterizzata da una stretta aderenza alle leggi e alle procedure che regola- no il suo caso. Il rapporto tra retorica e legge che emerge nel discorso di Eussiteo rivela una strategia retorica basata su prove e documenti legali. Questo articolo si concentrerà in particolare su due temi importanti nell’economia del discorso, ossia l’uso di argomenti religiosi e il tema del complotto contro Eussiteo, che si rivelano estremamente illuminanti nel mostrare come la procedura pertinente abbia plasma- to le argomentazioni di Eussiteo. A questo scopo la sezione II confronta Dem. 57 con altri probabili casi di ephesis per valutare il funzionamento della procedura di ephesis quando scaturisce da una diapsephisis. La sezione III mostra che gli argo- menti utilizzati da Eussiteo sono da considerarsi rilevanti per vincere un caso di ephesis in tribunale. L’intero discorso è costruito efficacemente per dimostrare “ciò che è vero” contro le “false accuse” e le “affermazioni diffamatorie” di Eubulide (57.1), cioè per impiegare argomenti legali contro “il gioco del sicofante”: afferma- re tutto senza provare nulla., This paper analyses Euxitheus’ legal arguments in the trial against Eubulides (Dem. 57) and proposes a new analysis of the ephesis procedure. Within this framework it argues that Euxitheus’ forensic strategy is not only relevant to the question at issue – to prove his status as a legitimate citizen (gnesios polites), as someone born from two citizen parents – but is also characterised by a strict adherence to the laws and procedure involving his case. The relation between rhetoric and law emerging in Euxitheus’ speech reveals a rhetorical strategy grounded on legal evidence and documents. This essay will especially focus on two important arguments in the speech, that is, the use of religious arguments and the theme of the plot against Euxitheus, which prove extremely enlightening in showing the how the relevant procedure shaped Euxitheus’ arguments. To this aim section II compares Dem. 57 and other probable cases of ephesis in order to reassess how the ephesis procedure worked when it arose from a diapsephisis. Section III shows that the arguments used by Euxitheus are to be considered relevant to winning an ephesis case in court. The entire speech is effectively constructed to demonstrate ‘what is true’ against Eubulides’ ‘false accusations’ and ‘defamatory statements’ (57.1), that is, to use legal arguments against ‘the sykophant’s game’: to allege everything but prove nothing’.

The prevalence of emotional over rational aspects in the decision-making process is for Thucydides a characteristic element of post-Periclean political degeneration. The people in the assembly become for the politician a mass of manoeuvre, whose negative feelings it may be useful to encourage. Given the role Alcibiades played in this transition from old to new politicians, this paper tries to identify, in the tradition concerning him, references to popular emotions in the assembly context: emotions of which Alcibiades was the object, but also an able fomenter. Since the essays in this section focus on the intertwining of individual emotions and collective passions, the paper does not neglect the references to individual emotions that are often at the basis of the initiatives of politicians, Alcibiades included.

In the pages that P. Gauthier dedicates to the metics in Symbola, his 1972 volume concerning foreigners and justice in the Greek world, several interesting aspects emerge regarding the figure of the resident foreigner, which are still debated today. This paper aims to retrace Gauthier’s thought on this aspect and to read it in the light of the scientific debate of the following fifty years. What emerges is a vision that in some respects deserves to be supplemented and updated, but in many others retains its vivid relevance. Gauthier, in contrast to many of the studies of recent decades, convincingly argues that the legal status of the metic is an indispensable component in determining his level of integration within the polis.

At the end of the 4th century, in 305 BC, Demetrius the Besieger decided to blockade the city of Rhodes: this siege is perhaps the most famous episode in the history of the island. Our principal source is a detailed narrative by Diodorus, in eighteen chapters (81-88; 91-100) of his Library’s Book 20. Most scholars believe that Diodorus employed a Rhodian source, perhaps Zeno. Diodorus’ narrative indicates a ‘Rhodocentric’ viewpoint, which focuses on the emotions of the citizens of Rhodes: their great fear, but also their extraordinary courage and the strength of their despair. The whole long tale of Diodorus tends to exalt the behaviour of the Rhodians, who resist until Antigonus orders his son Demetrius to end the siege. At the end of Diodorus’ narrative, the memory of the Rhodians’ emotions survives unforgettable in all readers. With their courage, they were able to gain well-deserved freedom.