- Crises (Staseis) and Changes (Metabolai)
- A cura di Breno Battistin Sebastiani, Delfim Ferreira Leão
Uniting past and present: Sicily as a locus of identity between Greece and Rome
- Maria do Céu Fialho
- © 2022 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/978-88-5518-612-4.07
Basing on the accounts of Thucydides and Plutarch, the paper analyses the way Sicily and the proposed Athenian expedition to Sicily, as a strategic bridge to advance over Carthage, define Nicias and Alcibiades, and what they represent: old Athens, comprised of experienced rulers and devoted, thoughtful citizens, who retreat, aware of the madness and threat of disaster that will lead to the ruinous outcome of the civil war. Forced to join the expedition, Nicias, as the embodiment of this polis, will stay until the end, in a campaign with which he does not agree, trying to save his fellow citizens. Alcibiades together with what he represents are fighting fiercely for the realisation of a megalomaniacal dream that will bring fortune and power for their own advantage. While Nicias accepts the command out of duty and imitation, Alcibiades yearns for it. In this background, Sicily and Carthage, waving from afar with their wealth and promise of power, constitute the stimulus for action that ultimately destroys an Athens close to defeat. On the other hand, in the young Roman republic, Sicily and Carthage offer natural encouragement of the conquest and submission of their power, as an imperative of the logic of expansion, affirmation and survival of Rome as a nascent power. It is the generation of the old Roman nobility that claims Carthago delenda est.
- Keywords:
- Sicily,
- Carthage,
- Athens,
- Rome,
- Nicias,
- Alcibiades,
University of Coimbra, Portugal - ORCID: 0000-0003-2115-9638
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Informazioni sul capitolo
Titolo del capitolo
Uniting past and present: Sicily as a locus of identity between Greece and Rome
Autori
Maria do Céu Fialho
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-612-4.07
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2022
Copyright
© 2022 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Informazioni bibliografiche
Titolo del libro
Crises (Staseis) and Changes (Metabolai)
Sottotitolo del libro
Athenian Democracy in the Making
Curatori
Breno Battistin Sebastiani, Delfim Ferreira Leão
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
140
Anno di pubblicazione
2022
Copyright
© 2022 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-612-4
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-611-7
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-612-4
eISBN (epub)
978-88-5518-613-1
eISBN (xml)
978-88-5518-614-8
Collana
Studi e saggi
ISSN della collana
2704-6478
e-ISSN della collana
2704-5919