RATIONES RERUM 22: Articolo Stefania De Vido

Descrizione

Rationes Rerum 22

STEFANIA DE VIDO
Demetrius and other kings

In a famous anecdote, Plutarch (Demetr. 25, 7) states that after Antigonus, when Demetrius Poliorcetes and the other Diadochi had assumed the title of basileis, the flatterers of Demetrius addressed Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Agathocles using delimited epithets, to show that only the Antigonids held the true kingship. The article discusses these epithets, focusing in particular on the one applied to Agathocles, νησίαρχος, in order to assess its echoes both in his own time and in Sicily’s past history. In the last part of the paper, the hypothesis is advanced that for the entire episode, or at least for the insertion of Agathocles into it, Plutarch may also have used the work of Duris of Samos.