Lo Zeus di Olimpia emblema di pace secondo Dione di Prusa

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to highlight the pacifist dimension of Dio of Prusa’s Olympic (XIIth) speech, given presumably during the Olympic games of the year 105 a.C.; Dio’s reserve against the Dacian Trajanic war is underlined, which is considered as an expression of aggressive imperialism on the part of the Romans. From this point of view, the Olympic is naturally paralleled by the Trojan (XIth) speech, through which Dio aims at deconstructing the myth of the Trojan war, the original ideological foundation of the contrast between Greeks and barbarians.