Cinzia Bearzot

I saggi raccolti in questo volume studiano la figura del migrante qualificato nel mondo antico. Quali aspettative di integrazione ha questo tipo di migrante? Quali risultati riesce effettivamente a raggiungere?

Nel quadro della ricerca d’Ateneo «Immigrazio­ne e integrazione

Se all’interno dell’impero romano i confini erano aboliti e non c’erano barriere, verso l’esterno delimitavano il deserto: al di fuori c’erano i barbari, gli stranieri. Siamo tornati a quei tempi? Un filosofo, una storica e un geografo a confronto.

Il saggio segue l’evoluzione geopolitica della storia del mondo antico, dal secondo millennio a.C. alla tarda an­tichità.

Ricerche storico-archeologiche condotte in Pakistan da un’équipe dell’Università Cattolica sul delta dell’Indo hanno evidenziato l’esistenza di una grande città. Ed è stato appurato che il sito di Banbhore non è altro che la storica città di Daybul.

Il libro raccoglie una serie di saggi sull'epitome, opera di Giustino, delle Storie filippiche di Pompeo Trogo, per il periodo da Alessandro Magno a Filippo V di Macedonia.

Il volume raccoglie una serie di saggi sull’Epitome, opera di Giustino, delle Storie filippiche di Pompeo Trogo, per il periodo da Nino, re degli Assiri, a Filippo II di Macedonia.

Il volume intende fornire una ricostruzione unitaria della storia dell'Eubea, area geopolitica strategicamente importante, tra il mar Egeo e la costa orientale della penisola greca.

La dialettica fra tradizione e innovazione, fra immobilismo e dinamicità, fra conservazione e apertura al nuovo che caratteriz

Il concetto ricorre in dibattiti fra studiosi e indica una tendenza diffusa nella vita pubblica. La democrazia ha fatto il suo tempo? O nuove corporazioni, più o meno rappresentative, temono le scelte dei cittadini nelle comunità nazionali e sovranazionali?

Il mondo antico ha elaborato idee, concetti, valori e discipline alla base della civiltà occidentale, della sua cultura e del suo stile di vita. Ma un tale patrimonio, oggi emarginato nella società e nel mondo dell’istruzione, rischia di disperdersi.

Giulio Polluce, professore di retorica ad Atene sotto Commodo, fu uno degli intellettuali di maggior spicco alla fine del II secolo d.C., che segna l’apogeo dell’ellenismo sotto l’impero romano.

Argo, una delle più importanti ‘terze forze’ del quadro internazionale greco, fu città di solide tradizioni democratiche, ma la sua esperienza fu assai diversa rispetto al modello ateniese, sia sul piano delle forme istituzionali, sia sul piano della convivenza civile.

This paper aims to identify the main features of Argos’ policy in the fifth century B.C. Modern scholars have underlined neutrality, defence from Spartan hegemony, and alliance with the Arcadians (especially with Mantinea) and with Athens. Friendship with Athens has been particularly discussed since, despite favourable premises, it was not very successful (as for example after 462/1 and between 421 and 418). Consequently, some scholars argue that Argive relations with Athens cannot explain the whole of Argos’ policy in the fifth century. Kelly states that this policy was «essentially pro- Argive». In my opinion, however, Argos often showed too little capacity of initiative and too great internal divisions, that did not permit a consistent ‘nationalistic’ policy. The relations with Athens were no doubt favoured by political affinity (Thuc. V 44, 1). Only a democratic government could, in fact, enable Argos to set herself free from Sparta, join democratic, anti-Spartan states (such as Athens, Arcadia and Elis), and aspire to restore her ancient hegemony on the Peloponnesos. On the contrary, with an oligarchic, pro-Spartan government Argos could only aspire to control Argolid and enforce a local policy. For this reason Argos was influenced by internal stasis. On several occasions (probably in 469-464 and in 451, and certainly in 417), the revival of the oligarchical faction caused a change in Argive foreign policy. Unlike Athens, Argos was a weak and disunited democracy, built from a forced assimilation of people of lower status (perhaps even of different ethnical origin) and often undermined by a strenuous oligarchical faction. Beside fear of isolation and internal divisions, historical events highlight, in my opinion, a strong influence of Corinth on Argos’ policy (perhaps not enough underlined by modern scholarship). We can identify several episodes from the end of the sixth century until 421; but Corinth’s role clearly emerges from the events of the years 421-418. After the conclusion of the alliance between Sparta and Athens in 421, the Corinthians tried to arrange a great Peloponnesian democratic coalition under the leadership of Argos, whose aim was to save the Peloponnesos from subjugation (Thuc. V 27, 2). The Corinthians evidently did not intend to claim Peloponnesian hegemony for themselves: they consciously left this leading role to the Argives, either because Argos had historical traditions that made it the best alternative to Sparta as Peloponnesian leader, or in order not to get too much involved in an uncertain and dangerous project. Furthermore, Argos’ leadership could obtain the approval of Peloponnesian democratic states, that did not trust the oligarchical Corinth, for the Corinthian project. Afterwards, Corinth’s attitude seems to have been fundamental in the crisis of the anti-Spartan coalition. When the Corinthians withdrew from the anti-Spartan front during the year 420, the Argives lost their interest in Peloponnesian hegemony. Being afraid of remaining isolated, they first tried to come to a compromise with the Spartans, and then reapproached the Athenians. In comparison with Corinth, Argive political and diplomatic initiative shows lack of consistency and impressive weakness after 421. Thus, Argos’ policy seems to have often depended on external initiative and to have been conditioned, or inspired, by Corinth. The great influence Corinth had on Argos’ choices also depended on the geopolitical situation of Argos that was under Spartan pressure on the southern side and Corinthian menace in the North. Sometimes Argos tried to extend her influence to the detriment of Corinth; more often she suffered Corinth’s initiative and became an instrument of Corinthian policy. Thus, in the fifth century Argive foreign policy seems to have been a ‘vicarious’ policy, actually led by the Corinthians.

Il volume è dedicato alla Biblioteca storica di Diodoro Siculo e, in particolare, alle parti dell'opera riguardanti non la sto

In Lysander’s Life (14, 3) Plutarch mentions Lysander’s attempt to colonize Sestos by installing there his seamen, after taking the town from the Athenians and expelling its inhabitants. His attempt failed for Spartan opposition. According to Plutarch, on this occasion, for the first time Spartan government didn’t support Lysander who was compelled to abandon his plan. Lysander’s project could not invoke a sure precedent in Spartan history. As it seems, it was a new, personal initiative of ‘imperial’ politics, with the purpose of strengthening the relationship between commander and soldiers, and of making Lysander popular among his fleet’s sailors. Had Lysander any model for his colonial initiative in mind? Or was it only connected with the navarch’s powerful, innovating personality? Lysander’s historical experience can conjure up several models, such as Polycrates the tyrant, Brasidas the general, Pausanias the regent. Pausanias, in particular, seems to resemble Lysander as far as personality, ambitions, care of his public image, and way of life are concerned. Lysander’s contemporaries perceived such striking analogy, as attested in a sentence by king Agis II: according to Athenaeus (XII, 543 c), the king used to say that, with Lisander, Sparta bore ‘a second Pausanias’. It has been stressed that Thucydides’ account on Brasidas seems to be influenced by Lysander’s historical experience. In the same way, Diodorus’s account on Pausanias suggests that the image of Lysander influenced the perception of the Spartan regent in the Bibliotheca historica. Diodorus’ main source, Ephorus, seems to blame their analogous intolerance of the limits imposed on individuals by the Spartan tradition, and their refusal of the typical ‘Spartan way of life’. Thus, our sources suggest lively debate on Lysander as a ‘new Pausanias’ which involved historians as Ephorus and Theopompus. According to the fragments, the former probably underlined the similarities between Pausanias and Lysander, as in the contemporary tradition represented by king Agis; the latter denied such similarities by depicting Lysander as indifferent to money and pleasures, and not eager to imitate a foreign way of life. If such debate occurred, then, Lysander’s taking of Sestos to colonize it with his men as a private dominion did probably remind his contemporaries of the shadow of Pausanias’s dominion in Byzantium after the Second Persian War. Lysander did not likely mean to conjure up Pausanias’s alarming precedent; on the contrary, he probably meant to imitate Brasidas who had been Amphipolis’s founder unconditionally trusted by his soldiers, and who, nonetheless, still respected Spartan tradition. However, Lysander’s unconventional behaviour increasingly led to perceiving him as a ‘new Pausanias’, and spread worries about his personal initiatives and their constitutional consequences. Spartan apprehensions are proved by Agis’s sentence and in a similar remark by the Spartan Eteokles who, according to Plutarch (Lys. 19, 5), used to say that «Greece would not have suffered two Lysanders». So, ‘conventional’ Spartans as Agis and Eteokles gave expression to the apprehensions of Spartan conservative political groups about Lysander’s ‘unconventional’ initiatives.

The ancient tradition often compares ‘conventional’ and ‘unconventional’ Spartans. In our sources we can find typical Spartans, representing the best local tradition, and innovating Spartans, who excited suspicion in their own city’s public opinion and establishment. This paper considers such comparisons in different historical contexts, without claiming to be exhaustive. First of all, I consider the comparison between the Spartan king Archidamus and the ephor Sthenelaidas in the «Spartan debate» in Thucydides’s first book. Their speeches attempt not only to compare two individuals, but also to focus on «Spartan and Athenian national characteristics»: Archidamus is the typical Spartan, representing his own city’s traditional caution, hesitation, and inactivity; on the other hand, Sthenelaidas is the alternative Spartan, representing a more dynamic and innovating attitude. Moreover, I consider two couples, Lysander and Kallicratidas, and Agesilaus and Agesipolis, whose personalities and politics are often compared in our sources. On the one hand, Lysander and Agesilaus are innovating leaders and represent different imperialistic trends that are not consistent with Spartan tradition; on the other hand, Kallicratidas and Agesipolis (like his father, king Pausanias II) are more traditional leaders and conceive of Spartan hegemony as an instrument of panhellenic policy, respecting freedom and autonomy of Greek states, and following the ancient image of Sparta as the champion of freedom and the enemy of imperialism and tyranny. These cases emphasize some unchanging features in the comparison of different personalities and political orientations. On the one hand, we find men like Etoimaridas, Archidamus, Kallicratidas, Pausanias II and Agesipolis, representing sophrosyne and dikaiosyne, traditional moral virtues and self-control, supporting a panhellenic and ‘pacifist’ foreign policy, defending a panhellenic balance of power based on dividing spheres of influence, on mutual control, and on restriction of Spartan hegemonical ambitions. On the other hand, we find men like Sthenelaidas, Lysander and Agesilaus, representing unscrupulous military aggressiveness and ethical indifference, innovating capacity but also paranomia and imperialistic trends on the ‘Athenian’ model. Such parallelism has a strictly political character: the comparison is not between different personalities or ethics, but between different ideas about the hegemonic role of Sparta in Greece. In any case, it must be noted that in fourth-century Sparta ‘unconventional’ and ‘revolutionary’ behaviour can be perceived as ‘traditional’. Xenophon (Hell. V, 2, 32) mentions an interesting sentence by king Agesilaus about the case of Phoebidas, who held the acropolis of Thebes, the Kadmeia, on his own initiative. The ephors and most Spartiates angrily disapproved of Phoebidas’s behaviour as he had acted «without authorization by the state»; however, Agesilaus said that «if what he had done was harmful to Lacedaemon, he deserved to be punished, but if advantageous, it was a time-honoured custom that a commander, in such cases, had the right to act on his own initiative». In his contrast with Lysander, Kallicratidas, at the end of the fifth century, had refused personal initiatives as inconsistent with Spartan tradition; according to Agesilaus, an ambiguous and many-sided character, personalism can be considered a traditional element.

Il ruolo di Senofonte come testimone del federalismo, e del suo scontro con le autonomie cittadine nel corso del IV secolo, è stato spesso misconosciuto. In realtà, lo storico non solo è un buon conoscitore delle vicende degli stati federali e delle loro strutture istituzionali, ma rivela anche attenta sensibilità per la terminologia specifica del federalismo, in particolare quella che esprime la contrapposizione tra sympoliteia federale e politeia cittadina, e per temi significativi dell’‘ideologia’ federale, come la condivisione di diritti e doveri tra realtà paritarie. Uomo della polis, Senofonte offre tuttavia una adeguata valorizzazione dello stato federale e delle sue potenzialità, che ne rivelano il carattere alternativo rispetto alla città e ad alcuni suoi storici limiti: la forza demografica e, di conseguenza, militare, la potenza economica, la tendenza all’unificazione collegata con il reciproco scambio di diritti. Lungi dall’avere un carattere poleocentrico, le Elleniche di Senofonte offrono un notevole contributo, secondo solo a quello di Polibio, alla comprensione del federalismo greco e dei diversi fenomeni di aggregazione tendenti al superamento del frazionamento poleico.

Lo stato territoriale è una realtà politica del mondo antico che si manifesta soprattutto in epoca...

Il volume propone un commento storico – preceduto da un ampio saggio introduttivo – alle orazioni Contro Eratostene e Contro Agorato di Lisia, due testi fondamentali per la ricostruzione delle vicende della crisi della democrazia ateniese sullo scorcio del v secolo a.C. e della sua successiva restaurazione. Alla testimonianza di Lisia, pur fortemente orientata sul piano ideologico, l’analisi condotta nel commento porta a riconoscere una sostanziale attendibilità, se non sui particolari della ricostruzione storica – talora riferiti in modo impreciso come è comune nell’oratoria – almeno nel lucido e severo giudizio, storico e politico, espresso su Teramene e sul ruolo del movimento «moderato» nei drammatici avvenimenti compresi nel breve e tormentatissimo arco cronologico tra il 415 e il 403.

Il volume raccoglie una serie di saggi sull’Athenaion politeia dello Pseudo-Senofonte, con l’intento di rendere conto della complessità di un dibattito scientifico ormai di lunghissima data...