La memoria del tiranno: Anassilao di Reggio tra protagonismo personale e oblio letterario

Abstract

The aim of this article is twofold. First, it analyses how Anaxilaus exploited the performative
contexts and communicative strategies that, in the first decades of the fifth century
BCE, were available to the tyrants of Magna Graecia and Sicily who wished to ensure the
fame of their exploits and legitimise their political actions. Secondly, it sets out the stages
that led to the substantial erasure of the memory of Anaxilaus on a historiographical level.
In this respect, a decisive role seems to have been played by Ephorus, who, in his Histories,
overshadowed the antagonistic relationship with the Deinomenids that Anaxilaus had in
Sicily until the battle of Himera.