- Type: Doctoral thesis
Title: Redes de interação entre gregos e não gregos: os frúria da hinterlândia da Sicília grega
Year: 2018
Publication: Tese de doutorado
Keywords: phrourion - contact and networks - landscape and identity - organisation of space - perception of the monetary system
Abstract: Ancient Greek literature has handed down to us a rich vocabulary for describing the way of life of the Hellenic peoples scattered across the Mediterranean. These same words were used to define forms of social and urban organisation of non-Greek peoples, whose structures and original vocabulary, however, we do not know exactly. The noun phrourion, whose main meaning from the Classical period onwards is fortress or fortified post, alternates in Diodorus Siculus, a Roman historian of Greek language and culture, with polis to name the indigenous cities. Researchers of Greek Sicily came to use the word to refer to the native cities that show a strong Hellenic character after their contact with the apoikoi. The purpose of this study is to investigate the so-called phrouria of central Sicily, Sikania, paying particular attention to the landscape in which they developed, to their urban and extra-urban structures and to the expression, through material culture, of the entanglement between Greek and non-Greek cultures, from the end of the 7th to the 4th century BC. Despite its apparent geographical isolation, this region had been involved since the Neolithic in the movements interconnecting various areas of the Mediterranean basin, while maintaining a certain conservatism that still characterised it in the 5th century BC. Between the beginning and the middle of the 6th century BC, this area entered the orbit of interest of the Rhodian-Cretan component, establishing with it predominantly peaceful relations that evolved according to the historical circumstances that determined the needs and interests of one side or the other. The indigenous cities took on particular roles based on the geographical or cultural peculiarities that distinguished them and in tune with the new political reality. Among the elements examined, we observe that the choice of settlement site, the organisation of urban space and the natives' relationship with the monetary economy are an eloquent expression of the new cultural reality that began to take shape from the moment of contact between the two entities. The local populations, indeed, although in some cases adopting Hellenic architectural forms, organised themselves on the ground in a way very different from the typical orthogonal scheme of the apoikiai; likewise, they accepted the monetary system as a medium of exchange only with difficulty, continuing to prefer metal by weight, which is why the heavy bronze coins of Akragas were the most widespread and continued to circulate even after their official issue. The indigenous people remained settled on the summits of the highest hills until the end of the 5th century and, according to our proposal, this pattern began to change only from the 4th century BC, when the local citizens were joined by mercenaries, mainly of Italian origin.
Access - Type: Book
Authors: Maria Beatriz Borba Florenzano; Angelo Maria Gianeze Ribeiro; Viviana Lo Monaco
Title: A coleção de moedas romanas da Universidade de São Paulo
Year: 2015
Publication: MAE, USP
- Type: Book
Authors: Giuseppe Guzzetta; Giovanni Di Stefano; Maria Agata Vicari Sottosanti; Viviana Lo Monaco
Title: IL "TESORO DEI SEI IMPERATORI" D
Viviana Lo Monaco