Hellenistic Court

Il volume propone un quadro sintetico ma aggiornato delle forme del potere nel mondo greco tra iv e i secolo a.C., fra la tirannide e la nuova concezione di regalità introdotta da Alessandro Magno. La chiave di lettura è la reazione polemica o, spesso, intrisa d’ironia, satira e parodia, che queste suscitarono nella pubblicistica – coeva e non – e tra i sudditi. A tal proposito vengono individuati e discussi alcuni casi di studio particolarmente significativi: re munifici e tiranni spietati, regine virtuose e sovrane viziose riprendono vita in queste pagine, mostrando, tra scurrilità e raffinatezza, sbeffeggio e mito, la persistente attualità del loro volto.

Lo studio propone un'analisi dello «stato regale» asmoneo in rapporto con le diverse componenti ideologiche e le applicazioni storiche del sistema delle monarchie ellenistiche. La vicenda della dinastia giudaica viene ricondotta al contesto delle relazioni tra i diversi livelli di potere tipico di quelle monarchie, nel quale mostra di rientrare con coerenza nelle sue manifestazioni.

This is a meticulous survey of the reception of some lyric subgenres
in Hellenistic poetry and it is meant to be the first of a series of contributions
on the subject. Leaving aside lyric in a religious context, the paper is divided
into two main sections, namely lyric poetry composed for rulers and lyric poetry
written for everyday people. In the new social context lyric poetry was intended
for presentation in the royal symposia. The Alexandrians wrote all types of occasional
lyric poetry (enkomia, epinikia, epithalamia, threnoi and epikedeia), a fact
that is reflected both in the work of distinguished poets, such as Callimachus,
Posidippus and Theocritus as well as in the epigrammatic tradition and in poetic
fragments found on papyri. Special attention is given to stichic lyric poetry and
to the new genre of the mime, whereas the oral tradition of the carmina popularia
and the making of lyric anthologies for symposiastic use complete the picture.

From 330 B.C. Alexander transformed his court by adopting a number of court personnel and practices from the Achaemenids. This included the adoption by the king of a mixed Persian and Macedonian royal costume, proskynēsis, Persian spear-bearers and certain Persian officers, such as the chiliarch and the chief usher (εἰσαγγελεύς). But Alexander also used an imposing tent and an audience style modelled on that of the Great King. It is my intention here to investigate the Persian-style tent of Alexander and the two court offices called the chiliarch and chief usher, associated with the king's new audience-style.