Fragmentary Greek Historiography

PALLAS, 67, 2005, pp. 139-152. Le Plutarque d'Athénée: masque, modèle et tradition Aurélien BERRA (Université de Paris XII) Dans l'étude de la fortune qu'ont connue les Moralia dès l'Antiquité, il semble de la meilleure méthode de consulter Athénée, témoin habituel, car ...

Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae preserves an invaluable treasure of quotations from authors whose works have been lost. The work takes the form of an extensive literary banquet, in which knowledge is transmitted dialogically by twenty-nine learned anqueters. The quotations from historians, in particular, offer crucial insight into how Athenaeus employs and integrates his sources. The historians of the fourth century BCE, although temporally distant from Athenaeus, are perfectly woven into the fabric of the text and play a key role in shaping the reception of ancient historiography during the Imperial period. Throughout the work, Athenaeus constructs a web of intertextual references that link page to page, paragraph to paragraph, and book to book. Book III accentuates this network of quotations, as the authors appear to communicate with one another within the many themes included in this part of the work. This thesis aims to examine how Athenaeus makes use of his literary sources and to contribute to the study of the reception of Greek historiography in the Imperial age and to the understanding of the dialogue between erudition and historical memory in Imperial Greek literature.

Abstract: The 4th century B.C. can be considered a saeculum breve, compressed between the end of a pan-Hellenic conflict, which had decreed the failure of a radical democracy, and the establishment of the Macedonian kingdom. In between, the critical reflection of a society, such as the Athenian society, incapable of accepting a secondary role in the political, economic and cultural history of the Hellas, and which reacts by attempting to readapt the old schemes of its golden age to the new feeling of Greek man. The twelve contributions collected here aim to highlight various aspects of those changes characterising an extraordinary period, a veritable building site for the creation of a new world.

The Parallel Lives style examination and biography is one of the oldest forms of historical inquiry, providing a comparison between a foreign subject and a more familiar subject as a frame of reference. This style of examination was popular for dissertations in the 19th century among military historians writing about generals who were stylistically known as “Great Captains” for much of history. While the moral comparisons of such histories in bygone eras possess less utility, multimodal comparisons of lives that readers have more and less contextual background to provide a model to bridge the gap between foreign and familiar subjects. The two subjects of this inquiry are Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus of the Middle Roman Republic during the Second Punic War, and Duke Federigo da Montefeltro of the Italian Renaissance, who attempted to live a life modeled on both Caius Julius Caesar and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Both subjects were paragons of martial virtue in their respective eras in very different cultures. Given the degree of information contextualization required for adult learning, providing bridging context improves the quality and amount of retention by the reader. It is for these reasons that paralleling two subjects using a multimodal method to parse the components for examination and delivering the information in a contextualizing frame based on Bloom’s Taxonomic Model of Adult Learning is posited as a valid approach to teaching history, one that can speak interdisciplinary languages and appeal to wider audience bases. The use of modern research methods and integrated reasoning creates an updated approach, which delivers a procedural historical example for deep dive, theoretically aligned analysis.

Resumo: Muitas vezes, a palavra "mito" é entendida como sinônimo de "mentira". No entanto, na pesquisa histórica, o mito tem muito a revelar ao historiador, pois pode fornecer informações sobre figuras históricas que inspiraram a construção de determinado mito, bem como sobre aspectos políticos e sociais subjacentes à formação da narrativa mítica. No presente artigo, abordaremos o mito de Semíramis, conforme apresentado no Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi, de Marco Juniano Justino. Mais do que uma mera análise do mito, buscaremos lançar hipóteses sobre suas origens históricas e literárias, assim como os motivos que levaram o autor a caracterizar Semíramis e seu filho Nínias de maneira negativa e pejorativa. Para isso, situaremos a escrita de Justino no seu contexto histórico de criação, a fim de melhor compreender tais desenvolvimentos.

The purpose as usual is to give YOU ALL another chance to ignore my work and in particular my offer of a new approach to scholarship, the opposite of what this immortal quotation describes:

The ideology of professionalism that is so appealing to occupational groups and […] practitioners includes […] exclusive ownership of an area of expertise and knowledge, and the power to define the nature of problems […] as well as the control of access to potential solutions [Evetts 2013].

Here the specific point are two clauses from Menander that were wholly mistranslated by Bekker, Niebuhr and/or Classen and those mistranslations conitnue uncritically to be repeated by the professionals.  But Clemenceau was right.  Eastern Roman history and the Greek language are too grave a matter to leave to the specialists. La histeria me absolverá

Co-edited with M.B. Savo e B.B. Sebastiani - Abstract:

The 4th century B.C. can be considered a saeculum breve, compressed between the end of a pan-Hellenic conflict, which had decreed the failure of a radical democracy, and the establishment of the Macedonian kingdom. In between, the critical reflection of a society, such as the Athenian society, incapable of accepting a secondary role in the political, economic and cultural history of the Hellas, and which reacts by attempting to readapt the old schemes of its golden age to the new feeling of Greek man. The twelve contributions collected here aim to highlight various aspects of those changes characterising an extraordinary period, a veritable building site for the creation of a new world.

This paper concerns the textual transmission and reception of John of Epiphania’s Histories, a fragmentarily preserved classicizing military-diplomatic narrative written in the 590s. Although no readers or editorial interest can be traced between the mid-seventh and twelfth centuries, renewed engagement with John’s Histories is evidenced during the Komnenian era in manuscript production and citation in court-centred historiography. In contrast to literary-cultural processes that typically preserve historical fragments as excerpts or summaries during the middle Byzantine period, the beginning of John’s Histories uniquely survives via a direct textual tradition transmitted in a twelfth-century codicological remnant (Vat. gr. 1065). More remarkably, a substantial near-verbatim quotation of this ostensibly obscure late antique work is embedded in the prologue to Anna Komnene’s Alexiad. The study assesses the implications of this intertextual relationship for both improving the critical text of John of Epiphania and understanding Anna Komnene’s compositional technique and literary ambitions.

This paper is also available for download on the journal's homepage: https://ojs.uniba.sk/graecolatina-et-orientalia/issue/view/25

The historian Dexippus of Athens covered the events of his time in two separate works: a chronicle from mythical times to A.D. 269 and the so-called Scythica, which focused on the invasions in the Black Sea region by East Germanic tribes in the third century A.D. down to about 271. This paper discusses the relationship between the two works, both preserved only in fragments. New text from the Scythica, the socalled Scythica Vindobonensia, makes it likely that Dexippus repeated sections from the chronicle practically verbatim. This discovery sheds light on the nature of the Scythica, which appears to be a combination of terse, informative passages from the chronicle and elaborate historiographical set pieces, such as speeches and strategems in the tradition of Thucydides. When Dexippus reaches the reign of Aurelian, no longer covered by the chronicle, the nature of the account seems to have changed to some extent. The fact that the author reused and replenished the same material in this way gives clues about his intentions when using the format of the historical monograph.

ΤΟ ΤΑΞΙΔΙ ΤΩΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΩΝ ΠΕΡΣΙΚΩΝ ΠΡΕΣΒΕΙΩΝ ΣΤΟ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟ ΕΠΙ ΙΟΥΣΤΙΝΙΑΝΟΥ Α΄ ΚΑΙ Η ΛΟΓΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΤΟΥ ΥΠΟΣΤΗΡΙΞΗ Σκοπός του παρόντος άρθρου είναι να διερευνήσει τις συνθήκες και το λογιστικό πλαίσιο διεξαγωγής των μεγάλων περσικών πρεσβειών από την Περσία στην Κωνσταντινούπολη επί Ιουστινιανού Α΄ (527-565). Οι πληροφορίες μας στηρίζονται κυρίως σε δύο αποσπάσματα από τη συγγραφή του Πέτρου Πατρικίου «Περί πολιτικής καταστάσεως», τα οποία περιγράφουν τη δεύτερη, πιθανώς, εκ των τριών πρεσβειών του πέρση Ιεσδεγουσνάφ και έχουν ενσωματωθεί στην «Ἔκθεσιν τῆς βασιλείου τάξεως» του Κωνσταντίνου Ζ΄. Ο πρεσβευτής με την ακολουθία του διερχόταν το μεθοριακό σταθμό μεταξύ Νισίβεως και Δάρας, εφοδιασμένος με έγγραφα υπογεγραμμένα από τον αυτοκράτορα, προτού γίνει δεκτός από τις βυζαντινές τοπικές αρχές στο συνοριακό φρούριο Δάρας. Εκεί οι Πέρσες ελάμβαναν εκ των προτέρων οδοιπορικά για ταξίδι 103 ημερών και στην Κωνσταντινούπολη ένα πρόσθετο ποσό, αν το ταξίδι είχε διαρκέσει περισσότερο. Η πρεσβεία τα...

La letteratura periegetica è divenuta oggetto, in anni recenti, di un rinnovato interesse di ricerca, in particolare nella bibliografia italiana. Allo studio di Eva Falaschi (2021), dedicato all'esame diacronico delle variazioni semantiche del termine periegetes in rapporto al parallelo exegetes[1], si sono aggiunti i lavori monografici, indipendenti ma pressoché contemporanei, di Mariachiara Angelucci (2022) e Roberto Capel Badino (2018), concentrati sulla figura di Polemone di Ilio.

According to an account that Felix Jacoby published as Philochoros (FGrH 328) F119, a gift of 30,000 medimnoi of grain was sent by Psammetichos from Egypt to Athens in the archonship of Lysimachides (445/4). When for its distribution a scrutiny (diapsēphisis) was held to check the citizen status of the claimants, 4,760 individuals appeared to be illegally listed as citizens, while 14,240 Athenians received a portion of grain. Brought together in this fragment, the events feature as a significant historical fact in studies of Pericles' Citizenship Law, Athenian demography and the Athenian grain supply. However, in this article I argue that the account in F119 is not correct as it stands, but a conflation of historically disparate events into one episode. This confusing amalgam is not Philochoros' mistake, but, with several possible causes, it must originate in the tradition between him and Plutarch, who incorporated it into his Life of Pericles (37). The most likely source of this conflated report for Plutarch's version is the Alexandrian scholar Didymos. A major element in the confusion is the diapsēphisis of 346/5, when all male citizens scrutinized each other on their civic status, a one-off event that deeply affected Athenian society and its historical traditions.

The object of this investigation will be the reinterpretation of the figure of Alexander the Great in ancient Christian literature, and in particular in Byzantine literature, where the Apocalypse by Pseudo-Methodius occupies a prominent place. This work, falsely attributed to Methodius of Olympus, who would have been martyred in 311 A.D., is dedicated to the end times of the world history and to the events which, according to the Bible, will precede the End and the Judgment. This apocalyptic work inspired a large number of later Syriac and Byzantine eschatological texts, often directly attributed to Methodius himself (from the Edessene Apocalypse to the multiple Visions of Daniel). Pseudo-Methodius expounds the theory of the four successive empires in the history of the world (the Babylonian, the Macedonian, the Greek and the Roman). He attributes to the empire of Alexander a decisive role for the history of humanity. In fact Alexander, like a second Gideon, helps to save humanity from destruction, by keeping away from the civilized world with a barrier, covered with the marvellous ἀσυγχύτης or asynchytum, various barbarian populations (Gog and Magog), that represent a threat to it. Thus, in this biblical-Christian perspective, the character of Alexander becomes a symbol of the defense of the values of civilization against barbarism. This reinterpretation of the Macedonian king defeating these biblical peoples resembles what it is said about Dhū al-Qarnayn in the Qur’an (Sura 18:83-98): but between the two we can see an independent parallel, not a direct quotation. Indeed, Pseudo-Methodius was probably a Christian from Syria who wrote in Syriac during the second half of the VII century, after the Arab (Ismaelite) conquest of Mesopotamia: he was therefore concerned about the stability of the Christian Empire or orbis, threatened by the Arabs. He prophecies that a last victorious emperor, like an alter Alexander or Constantine the Great, will win the unclean nations (not only Gog and Magog, but also peoples who may have lived near and beyond the Caucasus) and will render power to God, when the Antichrist appears, so that the Parusia of the Christ begins. Pseudo-Methodius’ Apocalypse must therefore be investigated in its context, sources and ideological intentions, with particular attention to chapters 8 and 9 (first paragraph), expressly dedicated to Alexander. For its confident message about the last victory of the Christian orbis, Pseudo-Methodius’ prophecy was read and translated in the Latin world too.

‘When we recognize something, we literally “know it again”’ and, at the same time, we experience the satisfaction of knowing more of what we already knew (Felski 2008, 25). This cognitive mechanism, found in the ancient novel, is applicable to all forms of rewriting, since citation becomes ‘una pratica simbolica della scrittura letteraria’ (Fusillo 1990, 27). Not even historical narration escapes these mechanisms of ‘poetic’ repetition and re-creation in the etymological sense of poesis (Rüsen 1987, 87). In this contribution we would like to focus on the mechanisms of ‘textual engagement’ of the readers of Hecataeus of Abdera’s work Περὶ Ὑπερβορέων, one of the earliest examples of ‘utopian’ travel narratives. It was composed in the first quarter of the 3rd c. BC and has come down to us through indirect tradition (FGrHist 264 F7-F14). At a time when the practice of citation was gradually asserting itself, one should also consider the influence on Hecataeus’ work of the exploration of northern Europe by Pytheas of Massalia (Bianchetti 1998 and Ead. 2023), and the developments of this motif in the lost novel by Antonius Diogenes (Phot. Bibl. cod. 166). In particular, we will investigate to what extent the well-established literary tradition of the Hyperboreans, constitutes the starting point for the creation of an ‘idealized ethnography’ (Gagné 2021, 338). Finally, Hecataeus’ work On the Hyperboreans will be reconsidered as an example of the creation, from a mythical specimen, of an original work at the crossroads between ‘utopian’ travel narrative and ethnography.

The chapter examines some examples of inscribed documents from the Hellenistic cities, most notably laws and decrees, which lay out actual archaiologiai (taken as local histories) of the communities in which they were enacted. In turn, they also detail a civic history of the community which is inextricably connected to Athens and its legacy. The chapter considers two case studies. First, the republication in Iasos and Troizen of Attic decrees from the Classical age. By republishing these documents relating to the Persian Wars and the Persians in the fifth and early-fourth century, these decrees draw an ancestral history of the city in which Athens plays an important role. Secondly, the chapter canvasses the cultural milieu of a couple of renowned anti-tyrannical laws (from Eretria and Eresos). These laws and their conceptualisation of tyrant killing reveal a close interaction with the Athenian cultural perception of tyranny and the threats it poses (e.g., in Eresos, through the medium of the Peripatetic Phainias). The chapter thus unveils how some crucialpieces of the early Hellenistic documentary record engage with the intellectual elaborations of the past and the cultural primacy of Athens.

speaker, should be based on our evidence for both philosophical and sophistic audiences, rather than just one or the other. The discussion of metaphor, right at the end, is both somewhat stranded, with no direct connection to the chapter before it, and disappointing in content. K. endorses the perception of metaphor as a shaper as well as a mirror of experience, but then does very little with it. Overall, K.'s study makes a very positive impression. It is a good addition to literature on the Second Sophistic, and his suggestion that the approach might fruitfully be extended to other ancient periods and genres, already supported by his own •irtation with philosophical oratory, is further strengthened by the near-simultaneous publication of Aldrete's work. Whether its insistence on the dialogic element in oratory has all that much to say to modern rhetorical theory is perhaps a more open question. Production and general standards of accuracy are high, the main exception being the complete failure of both K. and his editors to ensure the correct accent for (πσο)µαµι0. M. B. TRAPP

The antiquarian appendix at the end of the Carian section of Strabo (14.2.27-28), briefly summarizes the history of the Carians, the inventions of the latter, and finally deals with the meaning of the epithet that this people have in the Homeric Catalogue, i.e. βαρβαρόφωνος (Il. 2.867). In composing this appendix Strabo owes much to the Commentary on the Catalogue of Ships by Apollodorus of Athens; however, the Geographer is original in conceiving the rest of the appendix, where he explains firstly the term βάρβαρος, then the Homeric βαρβαρόφωνος not without exploiting ideas from Apollodorus and the authors cited by the latter. Apollodorus' explanation of the Carians' epithet may explain why the grammarian did not follow Aristarchus' dating of Homer (1044 BC), but placed the Poet a century later (944 BC). In the Appendix, Apollodorus' fragment 207 is re-edited according to the reading given of Strabo's passage.

The prototype of the Iranian-inspired heavy cavalry deployed en masse by Antiochus III at Magnesia ad Sipylum played a pivotal role in the outcome of the battle. However, later Greco-Roman sources, which refer to these horsemen as ‘cataphracts’, portray them as yet another extravagant, exotic unit born of the Eastern world. Their obscure origins and lack of understanding of their actual effectiveness reflect as much a controversial tactical deployment on the part of the Seleucids as a distorted perception of the classical imagery. Relegated to the margins of Roman military memory, the legacy of this experience would resurface powerfully in the face of the Parthian army’s asymmetrical strategies.

Konstantin Boshnakov's "Die Thraker südlich vom Balkan in den Geographika Strabos. Quellenkritische Untersuchungen" critically examines Strabo’s accounts of the Thracians south of the Balkan Mountains. The study introduces a new methodology for analyzing the legacy of ancient authors used by Strabo—both explicitly named and anonymous—by categorizing their contributions into Fragments, Analogies, and Comparisons. This approach provides a more structured assessment of Strabo’s sources, enhancing our understanding of his historiographical techniques and the transmission of geographical and ethnographic knowledge.
List of Reviews of This Book:
Rev. Stronk, J. (2004). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.07.12.
Available at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2004/2004-07-12.html
Rev. Peter,U. (2004). Historische Zeitschrift, 279, 717–718.
Rev. Bekker-Nielsen, T. (2004). Nyt fra historien LIII, 2, 84–85.
Rev. Engels, J. (2005). Klio 87, 1, 271–273.
Rev. Cabanes, P. (2005). L’antiquite classique 7.
Rev. Bredow, I. von (2008–2011). Orbis Terrarum 10, 257.

The volume contains an edition of the tragic and satyr fragments of Sositeus of Alexandria of Troas (3rd century BC). Sositheus was an important author in his era and enjoyed considerable fortune in antiquity. He is remembered among the seven authors of the "Pleiad" of Alexandria in Egypt, the group of the most illustrious tragedians under Ptolemy II. The epigrammatist Dioscorides (AP 7, 707 = 23 Gow-Page) praises him as the third great author in satyr drama together with Pratina and Sophocles, attributing to him an archaizing reform of the genre. His main work, "Dafni (or Litierse)", in addition to presenting a highly original contamination between satyr drama, Euripidean romantic tragedy, comic motifs and bucolic poetry, constitutes a meeting point between post-classical theater and the future Greek novel. The fragments, which arrived by indirect tradition and were largely reported by an anonymous mythographer (Laur. Plut. 56.1, 14th century), are here accompanied by a critical apparatus, translation, contextualizations and extensive textual, thematic and lexical commentary, which updates the few studies available today: among the majors, the now dated dissertation in Latin by Franz Schramm (Münster 1929), the article by Felicia Napolitano published in «Rendiconti della Accademia di Archeologia, Lettere e Belle arti» in 1979 and the commentary by Paolo Cipolla hosted in "Minor poets of satyr drama" (Amsterdam 2003), excellent, but without the fr. 1 by Sositheus. The volume also contains three introductory chapters dedicated to a brief history of studies on Sositheus, to the analysis of the testimonies on the author and to the illustration of the sources reporting the poetic fragments.

This paper proposes, starting from a detailed analysis of the mythological contents exposed in the tenth chapter of the so-called Fragmentum Censorini (= Nikokrates, FGrHist and BNJ2 376 F 4), a new contextualisation of the excerpt within Pseudo Censorinus' musical and metrical doctrine.

Papias, the bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor was the author of the five-volume Exposition of the Oracles of the Jesus in the early second century. It can be noted that his testimony is exceedingly important for our understanding of early Christianity and the origin of certain New Testament writings because of the several unique facts which his writings preserve. Fragments of Papias seem to have been preserved at least until the fifth century, although it is hard to tell whether late writers are quoting from Papias or from those who had earlier read his books.  The complete copy of his book is not available now but the extraction works from his book are found in other writings like Eusebius and Irenaeus.  In this paper, the presenters will be bring the information about background of the fragments, its contents, link between the fragments of Papias and the Gospels, and Papias’ eschatological understanding, with the critical evaluation and conclusion.

Presentation at MECANO Workshop I - Training on Digital Research Methods (Leipzig University).
Monica Berti and I explained how I am currently using the platform INCEpTION to annotate "The Histories" of Polybius. The aim of the digital annotation is to retrieve the relevant linguistic elements of Polybius' quoting practice (e.g., name of the authors, title of their works, verbs introducing paraphrases or citations).

2a -Direction d'ouvrages collectifs Athénée et les fragments d'historiens. Actes du colloque de Strasbourg (16-18 juin 2005), coll. Études d'archéologie et d'histoire ancienne, de Boccard, Paris, 2007. Les Perses vus par les Grecs. Lire les sources classiques sur l'empire achéménide, coll. U, Armand Colin, Paris, 2011. Athéniens du Pseudo-Xénophon (V e siècle av. J.-

This paper examines the knowledge of Cicero’s generation about Greek fragmentary historiography. The rather scanty evidence is examined thoroughly paying special attention to the chronology of the different passages which refer to such historiography, in order to understand
the stages of assimilation of the Greek genre displayed by Cicero and Nepos. The analysis of this evidence leads us to conclude that, while Cicero’s knowledge of historiography was indirect and unsystematic in many respects, Nepos actually read the majority of authors that Cicero seems, as late as the second half of the 40s, to have known only second hand. Furthermore, of the fourteen fragments as such cited by Cicero, nine are found in works composed between the years 45-44 B.C., precisely the years of Cicero’s and Nepos’ correspondence. With this fact in mind, we
should no longer grant a Ciceronian theory of historiography the weight it has usually been given, while, in questions of direct knowledge of Greek historiography, the biographer should be considered superior to Cicero.

Full volume open-access here: https://iris.unitn.it/handle/11572/440830.
Narratives about the transition from the Herakleid to the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, preserved in Herodotus and (drawing on Xanthus of Sardis) Nicolaus of Damascus, establish a qualitative distinction between Herakleidai and Mermnads which opposes, respectively, “royal” figures with Assyro-Babylonian connections to “para-institutional” figures with Phrygian connections. Dynamics of succession and usurpation within and between those dynasties recall phenomena that can be observed in epigraphic narratives of Neo-Hittite rulers. This paper investigates the narratives about the Herakleid-Mermnad transition in Lydia from a broader Iron Age Anatolian perspective, tries to explain how certain elements of the tradition originated, and proposes possible historical models to interpret hitherto obscure aspects of early Lydian political history.

Near the terrace of Apollo Carnaeus’ temple of Thera one can read a number of inscriptions engraved in the local Schlangenschrift (IG XII 3, 537-550), variously dated by scholars between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. These texts, more or less explicitly, refer to institutionalised homoerotic relationships within the community of the archaic polis, not
unlike those attested in Sparta and Crete. Through a re-reading of the epigraphs and their linguistic analysis, placing them in dialogue with each other, the paper aims to understand the nature and possible purposes of their content. More specifically, the contribution aims to verify whether they should be read as obscene inscriptions aimed at slandering the subjects mentioned, or whether, on the contrary, they are record and expression of a particular moment of some important actors in the life of the community in a context with a strong religious character. To this end, the contribution focuses in particular on IG XII 3, 537a, proposing a new interpretation in the context of archaic social dynamics within a community with an undeniably aristocratic character, and sets out to highlight possible repercussions in the sphere of internal political relations.

Secondo la voxpopuli, la morte di Alessandro Magno continua a essere un mistero. Ma è veramente tale, o questa percezione non è piuttosto il risultato di una pubblicistica pseudostorica che, spesso e volentieri, privilegia le ipotesi più clamorose e quindi più vendibili, a scapito di verità magari più banali, ma anche più scientifiche come una malattia? In questo libro l'autore ha investigato il problema delle cause della morte del grande sovrano macedone, analizzando sia le fonti antiche che la letteratura medico-scientifica recente. Il risultato è uno studio che esamina con la lente d'ingrandimento gli ultimi giorni di vita di Alessandro senza nulla concedere al sensazionalismo e alla tentazione di ricostruzioni fantasiose, ma sempre attenendosi al piano della scienza. Il libro, scritto con un linguaggio scientifico semplice ma non semplicistico, è accompagnato da un apparato documentario inteso a fornire al lettore gli strumenti necessari per potere decidere autonomamente quale ipotesi diagnostica sia la più corrispondente alle fonti antiche. L'ipotesi clinica qui proposta dall'autore riporta finalmente il problema della morte di Alessandro dalla mitologia all'ambito più corretto delle scienze storico-mediche.