The volume examines the ‘intersection of politics and identity in Greek Sicily and southern Italy’ (p. 4) from roughly 600 to 200 bce. T. presents a thoughtful analysis of the ways by which shifting communal identities impacted political decisions and how different political contexts in turn caused a change in salience for the polis, regional, sub-Hellenic ethnic and Greek identities held by Sicilian and Italian Greeks. These overlapping identities create a four-fold structure for the study, and one of the strengths of the work is T.'s demonstration of the interconnected and interdependent nature of these four identities.
T. organises the book into six chapters in roughly chronological order: Croton and Metapontion, where polis and ethnic identities intertwine (Chapter 2); Syracuse and the construction of identity by the tyrants (Chapter 3); Sicily and regional identity (Chapter 4); Camarina and the shifts between polis, ethnic and regional identity (Chapter 5); and, finally, Taras, Thurii and Syracuse and identity responses to Rome and the new Hellenistic world (Chapter 6). There are three main themes to the work: the ways by which ethnic and polis identities intertwine (Chapters 2, 5, 6); how identity rhetoric is used to legitimise the position of rulers (Chapters 3, 4, 6); and how communal identities function as decision-making criteria (Chapters 4, 5, 6).
The introduction (Chapter 1) begins with the distinction between ancient, concrete theories of identity versus modern, theoretical theories. T. draws on discursive and anthropological theories of identity, particularly R. Barthes, and argues that identity is constructed, subjective and flexible since it is contested, multiple and situational. Because of this, he argues, identity must be approached ‘from the inside’ whenever possible, especially in political contexts, and the salience of a particular identity in a particular context must be understood. T. uses the concept of identity politics to examine how the idiosyncrasies of a group interact with their wider political contexts, namely by the creation or reshaping of identity through external threat; by shaping political decision-making; and by the use of identity by leaders to create legitimacy. Overall, the introduction is clear, with good engagement with discursive approaches to communal identities (though see below on identity politics). T. lists the range of sources available for communal identities, material and textual, but he does not address how sources external to the region fit with his insistence of seeing identity and identity politics ‘from the inside’; there is a source discussion for Thucydides in Chapter 5, but the placement is odd.
Chapter 2 examines how polis and ethnic identities intertwine. T. argues that the Achaean ethnic group in Sicily and southern Italy undergoes multiple ethnogeneses, mediated through and by the individual poleis. Thus, while Croton and Metapontion show a similar process of intertwining with ethnic and polis identity, the specifics of how those identities are defined differ. In Croton, the polis’ foundation myths, coins and cult to Hera Lacinia emphasised the polis’ Achaean ethnicity as well as its polis identity through its doctors and athletes, whereas Metapontion used its foundation myths to assert the polis’ independence against Sybaris but also a connection to Athens.
Chapter 3 turns to how the Syracusan tyrants used identity rhetoric to redefine the community and inscribe themselves in it. T. identifies two main strategies: a ‘one of us’ rhetoric based on Dorian ethnicity and Greekness, and the use of the polis’ landscape to create unity as all Syracusans share in the topography of the polis. Pindar's epinician odes for Hieron and members of his court along with Deinomenid-era coinage assert a Syracusan identity through the landscape of Ortygia and Arethusa, which also imposes Syracuse's Dorian ethnicity on all who share that landscape. The Deinomenids then used past victories (Himera, Cumae) to present themselves as protectors of the Greeks against the barbaroi, while Dionysius I drew on this same idea of Greekness to promise future success against the Carthaginians and support his position.
Chapter 4 examines Sicilian regional identity, focusing on the worship of Demeter and Kore. The celebration of the Thesmophoria by the Sicilian poleis allowed them all to access a shared regional identity through cult, and T. suggests that the worship of the two goddesses may have mediated the development of a regional identity that gradually erased Greek/non-Greek boundaries (excepting the Phoenicians) to form a multi-ethnic regional Sikeliotai group by the first century bce. The chapter ends with the definition of ‘Sicilian’ against ‘Athenian’ at Enna and with Hermocrates’ speech at Gela, where he uses polis-based concepts to define the Sicilians vs the Athenians.
Camarina and the changing salience of its communal identities form Chapter 5: the polis identity that supported an alliance with Athens over Syracuse, the regional identity that informed a decision to withdraw support from Athens, and the ethnic identity that favoured an alliance with Syracuse over Athens. T.'s analysis of how Camarina defined itself opposite Syracuse while participating in regional and ethnic groups that included Syracuse illustrates how political context and identity rhetoric can change the lens through which a group views their decisions.
Chapter 6 examines how southern Italian poleis in the third century positioned themselves against non-Greeks and how Syracuse defined itself in the Hellenistic Mediterranean. In Italy, the increased presence of non-Greeks and their conquering of Greek poleis led, in some cases, to an existential crisis and, in Taras’ case, to the polis defining itself as the protector of Greekness against the barbaroi, including the Romans. In Syracuse, the rhetoric of Greekness was likewise important, though not against the Romans, while the polis used the memory of Deinomenid greatness to define itself against newer Hellenistic centres like Alexandria. T. convincingly demonstrates that the coming of Rome did not change the basic identity processes in the region, but that the same identity-defining practices from earlier periods continued.
The conclusion opens with the story of Hannibal at the sanctuary of Hera Lacinia at Croton and how the general used his dedication to inscribe himself in Croton and maintain their support. This acceptance of a non-Greek contrasts with Croton's relationship with the Bruttians, where the rhetoric of Greekness asserted a hostile relationship between the two groups. This final analysis reinforces T.'s basic argument: each relationship and instance of identity rhetoric needs to be taken on its own terms and contexts to best understand the specific identities at play.
The volume is a strong study of how communal identities operate and shift depending on political context. T. is particularly skilled at drawing out how outsiders can inscribe themselves in a community to gain legitimacy as well as how identities shift as salience and context change, though those shifts may not disrupt long-term continuity in identity rhetoric across changing contexts. I was less persuaded by T.'s use of identity politics in the study; despite his explanation of identity politics as ‘an identity group mobilizing to protect its interests’ (p. 12) and examples of such mobilisations in Sicily, his study focuses on how communal identities operate in political contexts. The slippage between ‘identity politics’ and ‘identity in politics’ does not undermine his point that communal identities affected communal decision making in Greek history, but he does not demonstrate that those decisions were made because they defined a particular identity group as such (i.e. Camarina allied with Syracuse because their Dorian identity informed the decision, not because it defines them as Dorians). Finally, Syracusan identity rhetoric looms large, contributing in whole or part to Chapters 3–6, and there is little discussion from T. on how this imbalance affects his study of communal identities in poleis outside Syracuse and the region as a whole.
