Not many scholars have dared to confront Hermotimus, Lucian's longest and most ‘Platonic’ work. S.'s annotated edition comes more than half a century after V. Longo's short Italian book (1964) and 20 years after P. von Möllendorff's commentary (2000), the most recent one on this Lucianic opuscule.
In the first part of the introduction (pp. 1–61), S. defines the Lucianic dialogue as ‘una discussione dinamica e aperta, là dove l'autore ripropone con assoluta originalità il modello del dialogo filosofico di stampo platonico-socratico, facendo tesoro delle strategie discorsive apprese nelle scuole di retorica’ (pp. 4–5). He considers Hermotimus one of the best results of Lucian's philosophical dialogues, where the author demonstrates an extreme freedom and autonomy, a profound knowledge of the dialogic instrument and the capacity to attune to his satirical, anti-dogmatic and performative aims (S.'s own words in translation, pp. 21–2). S. discusses Lucian's scepticism and anti-dogmatism, and properly places the author within the context of the philosophical schools and the philosophers of his time. He argues persuasively that Lucian neither distinguishes between Pyrrhonean and Academic Scepticism in his work nor identifies with either. A considerable part of the introduction is dedicated to Plato and ancient Scepticism as well as to the relationship between Lucian and Favorinus.
A major topic in the second part of the introduction (pp. 61–90) is the imagery of Hermotimus, to which the author refers with the German term ‘Bildersprache’. S. treats the argumentative technique, the figurative and analogical language as well as the imagery of the dialogue (in a strictly literary sense) and offers a detailed summary of the work, where all these features are appropriately highlighted. More than 330 footnotes in the first 90 pages contain a fruitful dialogue with an extraordinarily rich bibliography, in addition to internal cross-references throughout the book.
The text reproduces M.D. Macleod's 1987 OCT edition with a few differences, which are collected on pp. 128–31 and explained thoroughly in the commentary. S. carefully proposes four corrections of his own in the Greek text. It should be remarked, however, that one of these (Ἦ instead of Ἢ in §79) had already been advanced by Adamantios Coray (1748–1833). The same Greek polymath had preceded by more than 50 years K.F. Hermann in proposing the conjecture <τι> ταῦτ’ εἶναι in §7 (on both cases see O. Karavas, Nuntius Antiquus 8/9 [2012–2013], 153). The text is followed by a fresh Italian translation.
Without any doubt, the commentary is the heart and the jewel of this book. Over 400 pages full of erudition make up almost two-thirds of the book. S. constructs his lemmatic commentary meticulously and in detail. The first five pages are devoted to the title of Lucian's dialogue, its speakers, Hermotimus and Lycinus, and its subtitle Περὶ αἱρέσεων (i.e. on philosophical schools). Although S. does not divide the text into sections, he chooses to proceed by commenting on smaller units of one or two (rarely three) paragraphs. First, he provides a description of the content of each part to be discussed. Then a linear commentary follows, offering not only an analysis of the commented phrases, but also identifying allusions and citations to classical passages that Lucian had in mind as well as cross-references to his own work. Philosophical terms employed and adapted by Lucian are also discussed. Throughout S. is in constant dialogue with Plato (of course) and demonstrates an exceptional knowledge of both the texts themselves and modern secondary literature. Every commented paragraph (or paragraphs) ends with a section that deals with problems of textual transmission.
The commentary provides a clear understanding of the narrative and thematic construction of Lucian's dialogue and elucidates various aspects of the text. Nevertheless, sometimes the reader may wish for a more personal, narrowly focused and assimilated view. S. offers accurate and detailed treatment of fundamental Greek terms, such as ἀλήθεια, ἀρετή, εὐδαιμονία, ἡδονή, τέχνη and so on, but it is doubtful whether a researcher on ancient philosophy or culture will consult this copious commentary, if the researcher has no particular interest in Lucian. Commenting on the beginning of §79, for example (pp. 543–6), where Lycinus gives the definition of virtue in practice, i.e. acting justly with wisdom and courage, S. provides a remarkable anthology of Greek and Latin texts describing the virtuous life according to ancient philosophical schools and writers. Moreover, this exhaustive list of information preserves the scent of a doctoral dissertation, overshadowing the merits and crucial points of S.'s analyses.
There are only minor typos; the most notable one is the inconsistency of the text adopted for the last line of p. 104 (νῶι) and the comment on p. 346, where W. Dindorf's emendation νὼ is printed in the Greek text. S. moves with ease in an ocean of a multilingual bibliography (pp. 581–612). It is, however, frustrating that it stops in 2017. Most important among the omissions of later publications is C. García Ehrenfeld's Ph.D. dissertation on Hermotimus (King's College London 2018, published online in 2019). Two further remarks on bibliographical references: for ‘Gómez-Montserrat’ read ‘Gómez-Jufresa’ on pp. 242 and 595; Wyss 2017 (cited p. 3 n. 11) and Sermamoglou-Soulmaidi 2014 (p. 467) have been left out. Finally, it seems incomprehensible why S. should cite H.I. Marrou's German translation (1975) on pp. 174–5, but Marrou 1957 twice on p. 561 and in the bibliography, p. 600, instead of the French original or the Italian translation. The book closes with four very useful and analytical indexes: one of noteworthy terms and subjects, one of proper names, one of Greek words and one of quoted passages.
S.'s book finds its place undeniably and obviously among the substantial commentaries on Lucian's works.
