Lo smascheratore smascherato. Dione di Prusa e il mito troiano (Quando si confuta una storia, 2)

Abstract

Dio Chrysostom’s Trojan oration has been variously interpreted by scholars up to this moment. The vogue of re-writing Homer is surely a prominent feature of the Second Sophistic era, but the aims of Dio in giving his audience a story in which Troy was the actual winner of the famous war are far from clear. The article is intended to explore the relationship between Dio’s speech and the exercise of anaskeué or “refutation”, well attested in contemporary rhetorical handbooks; moreover, it suggests a new interpretation of the speech itself, usually considered as an indirect praise of Rome, whose foundation is no more credited to a refugee but to the representative of a winning people.