L’eroe necessario. Appunti sulla fortuna di Temistocle dal V secolo a.C. all’età imperiale

The historical memory of the Greeks belonged not only to the poleis but involved the Romans too. In fact, after some misunderstandings, they decided to share and shape Greek past when they created their own imperium. Recently this topic has aroused the scholars’ interest, and an insightful book (Spawforth 2012) has stressed the importance of Augustus for this phenomenon. In the author’s view, Themistocles and the battle of Salamis constitute important steps for political purposes and the Parthians are the new Persians (in the Roman propaganda). However, it is undeniable that in the Greek construction of the past Themistocles is a complex figure and that he became a civic and national hero only over time: he and the battle of Salamis were celebrated in Attica yearly and were portrayed in the local Attic coinage in the 2nd century BC. In particular, Plutarch’s life of the hero clearly shows the growing importance of the statesman and the victory for the Greeks, and it is worth noting that the author ignores some temporary uses of his figure and interpretations during the Roman domination.