| This
volume is the result of a scientific collaboration between the research
centres of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme in
Aix-en-Provence and the Department of Humanities at Ca’ Foscari
University of Venice, whose study interests converged in a joint
experimental project. A detailed comparison between Cicero and Diodorus
has never been proposed until now, probably because of the obvious
disparity between their works. There is, on the one hand, an illustrious
orator at the centre of the political and cultural experience of Rome,
and on the other hand, a minor Greek historian whose intellectual
profile has only recently been enhanced by critics. Yet, they have quite
a lot in common: they both lived in the turbulent late Republican age,
both came from wealthy families without any political role; both
received rhetorical training, travelled and frequented cultured circles.
The area where the comparison between the two authors is most
instructive is undoubtedly Sicily, the homeland of Diodorus and the
scene of the beginnings of Cicero’s political career. The two writers
shared a deep personal knowledge of the island: Sicily is constantly
present in Diodorus’ Bibliotheca and is the focus of the judicial and
political case exposed in the Verrinae. Aspects of the island’s history
and culture emerging from the work of each author have already been
extensively considered. This study, however, aims to offer a more
analytical comparison of the representation of Sicily in both works,
examining how the same geographical, historical and religious
information, originating from a shared cultural background and from
personal knowledge, is reinterpreted by the two authors according to
their different rhetorical and intellectual projects. We defined four
major categories of information relating to the island: geography,
history of great men, religious traditions and practices, artistic and
monumental heritage. For each of these categories, we conducted parallel
analyses on each work, focusing on the selection of data, the way they
were presented and their function in the overall economy of Diodorus’
and Cicero’s works. These parallel analyses highlight similarities and
dissimilarities between the two authors: the affinities show the
existence of a codified representation of Sicily, its history and its
specificity in the context of the first century BC; the discrepancies
result both from the divergences in method and aims of the two authors
and, more deeply, from their differences in terms of personal, cultural
and linguistic backgrounds and perspectives. |
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