Nient'altro che schiavitù? Sull'analogia fra Atene e la Persia in Tucidide

In the final sentence of their second speech at Sparta, in Thucidides’ History, the Corinthians warn that defeat in a war with Athens would bring nothing less than slavery. This statement is part of one of the rhetorical themes developed during the Peloponnesian War which equates the Athenians with the Persians as the enslavers of Hellenes. The paper aims at revising the argument of this topos as developed in deliberative speeches with particular attention to those held by the Syracusan Hermocrates. Sicily’s peculiar position suggested comparison of the Athenian attack with the Persian invasion of Hellas, and Hermocrates gives this comparison a particularly sharp edge. Such an examination will enable us to appreciate Hermocrates’ own attitude towards this theme and its purposes.