Tra contatto e contrasto: istanze autonomistiche ed affermazioni identitarie nell'orizzonte occidentale fra V e IV sec. a.C.

According to the sources at our disposal, anhellenic ethne in Sicily and Magna Grecia lived, until the mid-fifth century B.C. 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.