Incidenza dell'antico Dialoghi di storia greca

The Lityerses’ myth, the illegitimate son of the legendary Midas, king of Phrygia, who killed foreigners by beheading them after wrapping them in sheaves of wheat can be a useful key to interpreting the renowned Herodotean anecdote on the advice given by the tyrant Thrasybulus of Miletus to Periander of Corinth about the way to preserve one’s power by eliminating the most prominent citizens, i.e. the «highest ears». The juxtaposition between this anecdote and the Lityerses’ myth suggests that the Herodotean tale is the genuine version compared to the Aristotelian one which inverts the characters, as the Milesian milieu could more likely than the Corinthian one be aware of the Phrygian legend of Lityerses.

Periander of Corinth | Thrasybulus of Miletus | Herodotus | Aristoteles | Lityerses

Polybius’ analysis of the Roman Constitution and its Spartan model can be traced back to Aristotle, and the definition of both democracy and the best constitution can be compared with a famous passage by Plato considering the concept of poikilia.

PPolybius | constitutions | Aristotle | Plato | poikilia

The exile of intellectuals from Alexandria after the accession to the throne of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II in 145 BC is an episode that has been treated only tangentially in numerous reference works on the Hellenistic age. This article highlights the political, social, and cultural dynamics surrounding this event. It deserves careful reconsideration not only because it displays several relevant historiographical problems, but also because it had an impact on the subsequent development of ancient knowledge, with particular relevance for the history of classical scholarship in antiquity.

Museum and Library of Alexandria | Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II | Aristarchus of Samothrace | exile of intellectuals | Athenaeus

This paper discusses the inscription of SEG 57.758, a metrical dedication of a statue by Krino of Paros to Artemis Delie, dated 4th century BC. The study analyzes the earlier scholars’ interpretation and exegesis of the text to provide a new reading of the inscription. Taking into consideration several parallels attested in other Greek authors (metric position and meaning-context), it is possible to suggest a new reading of the test.

Hegesippos | Μιλησιακά | Parthenius’ Ἐρωτικὰ Παθήματα | manchettes | Palatinus Graecus 398

A new examination of the original inscription TM 309415 kept at the Abbey of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome has led to a reconsideration of its layout and text, namely a Greek epitaph for a Syrian man who died in 431 AD.

Greek inscription | epitaph | Via Ostiense Necropolis at Rome | foreigners in Late antique Rome | Syrian toponyms

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.

Alcibiades | Athenian politics | popular emotions | assembly | individual emotions

In books III and IV of the Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus narrates the march of the Jewish people to the promised land under the guidance of Moses. The narrative includes the exposure of repeated conflicts between the people and their guide, as well as the description of the emotions that arouse these conflicts. Initially the emotions of the people are described in terms that highlight factors such as irrationality, lack of control, excess passions, and recklessness. Faced with this, Moses appears endowed with the qualities of foresight, confidence, security, moderation, and wisdom. The conflict between both actors (the Jewish community and Moses) is thus assimilated to the confrontation between an irrational mass dominated by violent feelings and a wise and judicious leader.

Flavius Josephus | historiography | Judaeo-Greek studies | biblical studies | Greek literature

In ancient history, it is typically examined how society and culture ‘construct’ emotions, i.e., how they influence the way emotions are presented, displayed, controlled, and evaluated. Less attention has been paid to the way emotions are instrumentalized in order to consolidate political conditions, social values, norms, and ideals, to establish fictions, and to keep illusions alive. Examining a small selection of epigraphic, literary, and papyrological sources, this paper discusses how fictions in Greek politics (acceptance of hierarchical relations), society (slavery), culture (sexual behavior), and religion (divine power) had an emotional basis.

Emotion | slavery | religion | disgust | elite

This article deals with the complex portrait of Demetrius Poliorcetes in Plutarch’s homonymous Life. Demetrius is portrayed as a brave and daring hero, but emotional and unable to withstand the reverses of fortune: and yet these very characteristics, beyond the harsh words expressed in the σύγκρισις of the Lives of Demetrius and Antony, make the biography of the former one of Plutarch’s most interesting works.

Demetrius Poliorcetes | Plutarch | Parallel Lives | emotions | ancient Greek historiography

This article focuses on Aristotle’s analysis of disagreements on political justice and on how emotional reactions such as ‘indignation’ (nemesan) and ‘anger’ (orge) could trigger ‘factional conflict’ or ‘civil war’ (stasis). It argues that Aristotle’s studies on the function of moral outrage and anger in Book 2 of the Rhetoric allow for a better understanding of his theory of stasis in Book 5 of the Politics. Groups of citizens who are excluded from political power or who believe that they do not get their fair share become morally outraged and angry and thus motived to engage in stasis. This article claims that according to Aristotle the perception of political injustice is the general cause of factional conflict and that he is the founder of a political psychology of motivation.

political justice | disagreements | factional conflict | indignation | political psychology

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.

Demetrius the Besieger | Antigonus | Diodorus | Rhodes | siege

In Thucydides the angry reaction of collectivities of citizens and soldiers is frequently emphasised and in the speeches characters often argue about the danger of decisions taken under the influence of anger. Thucydides’ attention to the psychology of the masses is also important in relation to his overall plan of analysing events that may occur in compliance to the human nature (1.22.4: κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον). In Xenophon there is no lack of angry collectivities but the focus is mainly on emotions of the individuals coming to decisions in a state of anger and thus suffering the consequences. An exemplary case is that of Cyaxares in the Cyropaedia, proposed by Xenophon as a negative paradigm and compared with the exemplary behaviour of Cyrus the Great. Rather than the control of the masses – a typical concern of Thucydides – Xenophon focuses on the education, character and behaviour of those in power.

Thucydides | Xenophon | anger | psychology of the masses | emotions

In Aristotelian psychology, the perception of painful and pleasant passions is essentially a matter of interpreting external stimuli – complex objects or events – by attributing a certain quality to them and representing an image capable of provoking pleasure or pain. In the Rhetoric Aristotle exploits this fundamental feature of human psychology. He makes it a powerful tool of persuasion that consists in the ability to convey and ‘bringing-before-the-eyes’ of the listener a vivid image capable of arousing emotions in him.

Aristotle | Rhetoric | ‘bringing-before-the-eyes’ | actualisation | emotions

At the beginning of the fifth century BC, as a result of the enlargement of the fleet and the consequent growth of the social base following the enactment of Naval Law by Themistocles (482/1 BC), the entire coastal area of Piraeus began to become recognized as the centre of maritime power and the cultural medium of democratic values as opposed to the oligarchic pressures of the landed aristocracy. In Plato’s political view, Themistocles’ policy of social basis enlargement had undermined the cohesion and stability of the city-state which was founded on the concept of κοινωνία. By these premises, we aim to discuss the ideological representation of the classical polis in the Platonic discourse which, through an emotional lens, draws the portrait of a city culturally divided between τὸ θυμοειδές and τὸ φιλομαθές, highlighting the dangers of a corrupting connectivity of which the port of Piraeus embodies a symbol of intense emotional significance.

Classical Athens | cultural memory | discourse and identity | urban space | corrupting connectivity