Christopher de Lisle
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198861720
- eISBN:
- 9780191894343
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861720.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Agathokles of Syracuse ruled large areas of Sicily and southern Italy between 317 and 289 BC. This book argues that Agathokles was an important player in the Mediterranean world at a key moment in ...
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Agathokles of Syracuse ruled large areas of Sicily and southern Italy between 317 and 289 BC. This book argues that Agathokles was an important player in the Mediterranean world at a key moment in its history. His career has important implications for our definition of the Hellenistic world and its relationship to both the western Mediterranean and earlier Greek history. However, he has tended not to feature in studies of the Hellenistic world or of ancient Sicily. This work—the first book-length study of Agathokles in English in over a century—places him in the context of both the earlier history of Sicily and the developments in the eastern Mediterranean that mark the start of the Hellenistic era. In ancient discourse about Agathokles, in the coins he issued, in his interactions with the world around him, and in the way he ruled, Agathokles is simultaneously heir to a long tradition and actively engaged in his contemporary world. The failure to place Agathokles in both of these contexts has contributed to the development of an excessively deep separation between the western and eastern Mediterranean and between the Classical and Hellenistic periods.Less
Agathokles of Syracuse ruled large areas of Sicily and southern Italy between 317 and 289 BC. This book argues that Agathokles was an important player in the Mediterranean world at a key moment in its history. His career has important implications for our definition of the Hellenistic world and its relationship to both the western Mediterranean and earlier Greek history. However, he has tended not to feature in studies of the Hellenistic world or of ancient Sicily. This work—the first book-length study of Agathokles in English in over a century—places him in the context of both the earlier history of Sicily and the developments in the eastern Mediterranean that mark the start of the Hellenistic era. In ancient discourse about Agathokles, in the coins he issued, in his interactions with the world around him, and in the way he ruled, Agathokles is simultaneously heir to a long tradition and actively engaged in his contemporary world. The failure to place Agathokles in both of these contexts has contributed to the development of an excessively deep separation between the western and eastern Mediterranean and between the Classical and Hellenistic periods.
Christopher de Lisle
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198861720
- eISBN:
- 9780191894343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861720.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This introductory chapter identifies two trends in scholarship of ancient history, which are problematic for the understanding of the ancient Mediterranean as a whole and which the figure of ...
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This introductory chapter identifies two trends in scholarship of ancient history, which are problematic for the understanding of the ancient Mediterranean as a whole and which the figure of Agathokles helps to demolish. The first of these is the tendency to study the western and eastern halves of the Mediterranean entirely separately. The second is the emphasis on the death of Alexander as a moment of rupture between the Classical and Hellenistic Ages. Agathokles is best studied through a paradigm which emphasizes continuity with earlier history and connectivity between different parts of the Mediterranean.Less
This introductory chapter identifies two trends in scholarship of ancient history, which are problematic for the understanding of the ancient Mediterranean as a whole and which the figure of Agathokles helps to demolish. The first of these is the tendency to study the western and eastern halves of the Mediterranean entirely separately. The second is the emphasis on the death of Alexander as a moment of rupture between the Classical and Hellenistic Ages. Agathokles is best studied through a paradigm which emphasizes continuity with earlier history and connectivity between different parts of the Mediterranean.
Christopher de Lisle
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198861720
- eISBN:
- 9780191894343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861720.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter provides a narrative overview of Agathokles’ life and career as a foundation for the analytical chapters which follow. The collapse and revival of Syracusan hegemony in Sicily and the ...
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This chapter provides a narrative overview of Agathokles’ life and career as a foundation for the analytical chapters which follow. The collapse and revival of Syracusan hegemony in Sicily and the rise of Macedon in mainland Greece were the central features of Agathokles’ youth. His rise to dominance in Syracuse in the years preceding 317 BC highlight the difficulties inherent in our source material for his career. This seizure of power resulted in three interlinked wars: against his exiled Syracusan opponents, against the other poleis of eastern Sicily, and eventually against the Carthaginians. Agathokles invaded Africa in 310. Unable to decisively defeat the Carthaginians, he made peace with them in 306, but destroyed his opponents in Sicily. Around 304 BC he assumed the title of king. Subsequently he engaged in campaigns in southern Italy and the Adriatic. An ill-managed succession resulted in the dissolution of his kingdom at his death in 289.Less
This chapter provides a narrative overview of Agathokles’ life and career as a foundation for the analytical chapters which follow. The collapse and revival of Syracusan hegemony in Sicily and the rise of Macedon in mainland Greece were the central features of Agathokles’ youth. His rise to dominance in Syracuse in the years preceding 317 BC highlight the difficulties inherent in our source material for his career. This seizure of power resulted in three interlinked wars: against his exiled Syracusan opponents, against the other poleis of eastern Sicily, and eventually against the Carthaginians. Agathokles invaded Africa in 310. Unable to decisively defeat the Carthaginians, he made peace with them in 306, but destroyed his opponents in Sicily. Around 304 BC he assumed the title of king. Subsequently he engaged in campaigns in southern Italy and the Adriatic. An ill-managed succession resulted in the dissolution of his kingdom at his death in 289.
John Davies
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199688982
- eISBN:
- 9780191768088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688982.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter uses Frank Walbank’s Historical Commentary on Polybius as a palmary example of the sub-genre of ‘the historical commentary’, and notes that the sub-genre is largely ignored by the ...
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This chapter uses Frank Walbank’s Historical Commentary on Polybius as a palmary example of the sub-genre of ‘the historical commentary’, and notes that the sub-genre is largely ignored by the literature on ‘commentary theory’. It traces its emergence in C19 Germany and Britain, reviews the various formats which were used for it, and tries to explain why, from among a wide spectrum of ‘historical texts’ from Classical Antiquity, only a very limited selection has benefitted from such commentaries. It notes that two divergences have appeared, (a) that between concentrating on events or focusing principally on text, vocabulary, and literary form, and (b) that between being mainly interested in the author and being mainly interested in the events described. As a means of advocating re-integration, two examples are used: a brief passage of Thucydides (VII 1.4–5) and Justin’s narrative of the death of Agathokles (Hist. Phil. XXIII 2).Less
This chapter uses Frank Walbank’s Historical Commentary on Polybius as a palmary example of the sub-genre of ‘the historical commentary’, and notes that the sub-genre is largely ignored by the literature on ‘commentary theory’. It traces its emergence in C19 Germany and Britain, reviews the various formats which were used for it, and tries to explain why, from among a wide spectrum of ‘historical texts’ from Classical Antiquity, only a very limited selection has benefitted from such commentaries. It notes that two divergences have appeared, (a) that between concentrating on events or focusing principally on text, vocabulary, and literary form, and (b) that between being mainly interested in the author and being mainly interested in the events described. As a means of advocating re-integration, two examples are used: a brief passage of Thucydides (VII 1.4–5) and Justin’s narrative of the death of Agathokles (Hist. Phil. XXIII 2).
