Status
Concluded
Start date
01/06/2022
End date
31/12/2023
Frederick Santangelo
Sergio Brillante
Subject
On November 26, 1911, at the Barga theater, Giovanni Pascoli incited the war in Libya by describing the North African region as "abundant with water and crops, and verdant with trees and gardens", but also rich in ancient monuments, so numerous that the poet said: "Rome is there too!". As in many other moments of the Italian colonial itinerary, the Classic then became a myth of legitimacy to be used to present wars of conquest as missions of civilization, directed against peoples considered barbaric and without history. The antiquarian scholars contributed considerably to the development of such representations, allying themselves with politicians, military men and cultured amateurs in a long-term history retraced here through some key dates, places and characters; between 1887 and 1977, between Dogali and Rome, between De Sanctis and Wilamowitz. But was the path always so clear or were there also those who sought alternative routes? The Classic, after all, is an ambiguous myth, which from being an instrument of support for power can also become a scathing means of criticism.
Target
Analyze the cases in which Greek and Roman history was used as an instrument of violence, through false representations, manipulations that build distorting stereotypes, first of all, of foreign populations and of the Ancient World.
Status of works
The research was published in 2023 in the Collection of the Historical and Legal Department at the publisher Il Mulino “Critica storica” with the title: Anche là è Roma». Ancient and antiquarian scholars in Italian colonialism ISBN: 9788815386465.