La battaglia di Himera nelle Storie di Erodoto e il sincronismo con Salamina

Abstract

The very short report of the battle of Himera given by Herodotus’ Histories seems to have the primary aim of supporting a widespread tradition among the inhabitants of Sicily (still circulating at the time when the historian lived) about the true reason preventing Gelon from siding with the Hellenic League against Persians: he was impelled to engage in the battle of Himera, which took place the very same day as the sea battle of Salamis. No celebratory intent emerges from the account of Gelon’s and Theron’s victory over the Carthaginians, since Herodotus wants to report all the versions known to him about the explanations given to Gelon’s refusal to join the Hellenic League; there is no room for the triumphalist tones of the Deinomenids’ propaganda, developed under Hieron’s reign, which stressed the anti-barbarian role played by the Deinomenids. The historian seems mainly interested in pointing out the great difference between the geo-political balance in Sicily at the time of Gelon’s dominion, and the coeval happenings in mainland Greece: in Sicily a serious interstate conflict opposing Greeks (Dorians and Chalcidians) summoned a powerful Carthaginian army; according to the accounts of Sicilian people, the impending danger of a larger conflict impeded the tyrant from participating in that hoped-for Panhellenic league against the threats from the barbarians, both in the West and in Greece.