Tra contatt o e contrast o. Ist anze autonomisti che ed affermazioni identit arie nell’orizzonte occidentale fra V e IV se c. a.C.

Abstract

According to the sources at our disposal, anhellenic ethne in Sicily and Magna Grecia lived,
until the mid-fifth century BC a marginal and oscillating existence between more or less explicit
forms of subjugation, dependency relationships or ‘awe’ towards the Greek element. This paper
aims to highlight the synchronicity in the emergence of the intolerance of the anhellenic populations
in Sicily and Magna Graecia towards the dominant Greek component between the fifth
and fourth centuries B.C. Through the analysis of literary and archaeological sources, the paper
sheds some light on how identity assertion processes were initiated; moreover, it focuses on the
impact on this process of both exogenous factors – political dynamics within and across poleis –
and endogenous, that is the generational change within the leadership groups and non-Hellenic
communities, especially of Magna Graecia.