Abstract
The present
paper
aims at studying Valerius Maximus
’
presentation of Greek history between 490
and 362
an
d it is divided into three paragraphs. The first deals with the period from the Persian to the
Peloponnesian war, while the second with the ages of Spartan and Theban hegemony.
The third
paragraph
presents the conclusions of the
survey
,
focusing in
particular on
the chronological
distribution of the episodes treated (1),
on
Valerius Maximus
’
interests (2),
on his
evaluations about
the reported deeds and sayings
(3) and
on
the
much debated
problem of his sources (4).
The analysis of the
considered
pas
sages
is
grouped around some thematic
cores
, mostly concerning
characters con
sidered emblematic; more rarely
the attention is specifically focused on episodes that
do not have a reference to single personalities. Moreover, it is evident that Valerius Maxim
us chooses
to present facts and
protagonists not
much with the aim of illustrating fundamental events in Greek
history, but rather
on account
of their exemplarity, or rather their function of providing an example
(positi
ve or negative) related to the chapt
er
in which they are inserted. This is
the reason
why the
same historical figure not infrequently appears under different
chapters
and is sometimes presented
in a different light, with a favourable or
unfavourable bias
, depending on the context in which it
is set
(and, of course, on the source from which
Valerius Maximus
draws
the
exemplum
). The author, in
fact, seems to
produce
stand
-
alone
“
pills
” of history
and his work seems to acquire sense not so mu
ch
in the horizon of an overall
comparison be
tween the
Greek and Roman world
, but rather
in the
message that each of the
chapters
and each of the
exempla
wants to communicate.
Titolo tradotto del contributo | [Autom. eng. transl.] Classical Greek history in Valerius Maximus (490-362) |
---|---|
Lingua originale | Italian |
Titolo della pubblicazione ospite | Le exterae gentes in Valerio Massimo |
Pagine | 64-126 |
Numero di pagine | 63 |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2022 |
Keywords
- Valerio Massimo
- exterae gentes
- storia greca