The politics of identity in Greek Sicily and southern Italy /
This book offers the first sustained analysis of the politics of collective identity in Greek Sicily and southern Italy during the period c. 600-200 BCE. It advances two main arguments. First, the western Greeks constructed multiple identities, including a separate polis identity for each city-state...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Oxford University Press,
[2021].
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| Series: | Greeks overseas.
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| Summary: | This book offers the first sustained analysis of the politics of collective identity in Greek Sicily and southern Italy during the period c. 600-200 BCE. It advances two main arguments. First, the western Greeks constructed multiple identities, including a separate polis identity for each city-state, sub-Hellenic ethnicities such as Dorian and Ionian, regional identities and an overarching sense of Greekness. The book untangles the many overlapping strands of these plural identities and analyzes how they relate to each other. Secondly, the book presents a compelling new account of the role of identity in Greek politics. Identity was often created through conflict and was reshaped as political conditions changed, it created legitimacy for kings and tyrants and it contributed to the decision-making processes of poleis. A series of detailed case studies explore these points by drawing on a wide variety of source material, including historiography, epinician poetry, coinage, inscriptions, religious practices and material culture. The wide-ranging analysis covers both Sicily and southern Italy, encompassing cities such as Syracuse, Camarina, Croton and Metapontion, ethnic groups such as the Dorians and Achaeans and tyrants and politicians from the Deinomenids to Hermocrates to Pyrrhus and Hieron II. Spanning the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods, this study is an essential contribution to the history, societies, cultures and identities of the Greek West. |
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| Physical Description: | xviii, 311 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [255]-297) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0197586449 9780197586440 |