Marta Sordi

In his Historiae (XXII 57, 6) Livy wrote that during the year 216 a.C. two human couples, a Gallic one and a Greek one, were buried alive in the Foro Boario as an extraordinary sacrifice. A prophecy written in the Sybilline books claimed that Rome would be conquered by Greeks and Gauls if this sacrifice was not performed. In Rome this rite was banished in 97 a.C., but the presence of a couple of Greeks and Gauls buried together is difficult to explain. However, this rite can be considered a memory of the dangerous situation Rome had to face in the IVth century. Between 386 and 331 a.C. Rome was really challenged by Greek and Gallic forces because of the aggressive policy of Siracusa. Dionisius I and Dionisius II of Siracusa employed Gallic mercenaries settled in Apulia and Campania amongst their troops in order to fight against Cere and her allies, that is Rome and the Etrurian cities.

This paper opens with a short survey of the sources on the merging of Argos and Corinth and on its chronology; then, it focuses on the charge of betrayal brought against the pro-Spartan element in Corinth. According to Xenophon and Demosthenes, the Corinthian oligarchs had already intended to betray the alliance after August 394. This charge is supposed to have caused the massacre of the pro-Spartan Corinthians in the Eukleia. The paper also highlights Athenian interest in Corinthian loyalty to the alliance: Athenian and Argive troops stayed together in Corinth until the Athenian general Iphicrates was removed from Corinth and the Argives were able to seize the Corinthian citadel. As for the precise form of the Argos-Corinth Union, two aspects must be considered: 1) the Union was organized in wartime; 2) there were pro-Athenian and pro-Argive democrats in Corinth. In this context, we must rule out both synoikismos and sympoliteia and assume a form of isopoliteia (which may explain the Argive involvement in the Isthmian Games in 392).

Con la figura di Telefo, arcade, re di Misia e progenitore, secondo Licrofone, degli Etruschi, il mito arcade passa in Italia, come quello di Enea, attraverso l’Etruria. A causa dell’identificazione, presso gli antichi, degli Etruschi con i Pelasgi, questo mito può essere collegato anche con la presenza, attestata dalle fonti, dei Pelasgi in Arcadia.

Sono puntualizzate alcune problematiche relative a Senofonte: il suo soggiorno a Scillunte e la probabile fondazione, in tale occasione, di una colonia; l’attribuzione allo stesso Senofonte, dopo il 411, dell’Athenaion Politeia, confermata anche dalla replica in essa contenuta, a due discorsi periclei.

Un frammento porfiriano (fr. 64 von Harnack) conferma la notizia di Tertulliano, Apol. 5, 2 sul senatoconsulto del tempo di Tiberio che, rifiutando la proposta dell’imperatore di riconoscere il Cristianesimo, faceva di questa religione una superstitio illicita, i cui seguaci potevano essere messi a morte come tali. È l’inizio della legislazione anticristiana e la base giuridica delle persecuzioni.