Federico Russo

Caesar’s Pro Bithynis and the Sack of Heraclea Pontica

Abstract Caesar’s speech Pro Bithynis is usually considered to be an expression of the positive relationships between Caesar and the Kingdom of Bithynia. The context in which the speech was delivered is, however, unclear. By means of a lexical analysis of the two extant fragments of the Pro Bithynis, this paper aims at providing a new interpretation of the speech and its historical background. Caesar probably delivered the speech not immediately after King Nicomedes’s death – as commonly accepted – but after the Roman siege of Heraclea Pontica, when the proconsul M. Aurelius Cotta, Caesar’s propinquus, was accused of having sacked the city. As had already happened in Macedonia (thanks to Dolabella’s prosecution) and in Greece (Caesar represented some Greeks in a process against C. Antonius around 79 BC), the Bithynian affair represented a further occasion for Caesar to win over friends and allies among foreign communities.

The Beginning of the First Punic War and the Concept of Italia

The beginning of the first Punic War was the centre of a historiographic debate, mainly in relation to the legitimacy of Roman intervention in Messina. In the end Romans decided to send help to the Mamertines. Romans were aware of being in an awkward position; therefore tried to justify their intervention as an example of a bellum iustum. If we compare evidence concerning the onset of the First Punic War to evidence coeval with Hannibals campaign, we find significant similarities that allow us to understand what the connection between Rome and the Mamertines probably consisted of. The fact that in both cases the concept of Italy serves to push away, an enemy considered a foreigner, shows us the particular ethno-cultural importance of Roman-Mamertine homophylia. Research up to now has confirmed the ideological importance of the concept of Italy in Romes diplomatic relations in the first half of the third century. Keywords:bellum iustum; Hannibals campaign; homophylia; Italia; Mamertines; Messina; Punic War; Roman