Ierone e le élites civiche di Siracusa nel iii secolo: equilibri di potere in una polis e residenza regale ellenistica, all’ombra dell’egemonia romana

By focusing on Hiero’s reign in Syracuse, this paper aims to reassess the unstable balance between a new king and civic elites in a city which was at that time both a fully developed Greek polis and the seat of a new monarchic power. By combining literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence, the following crucial aspects of the political history of 3rd-cent. Syracuse will be dealt with: the search for a compromise between the local elites of a city with a long political and institutional history and the new dynamics activated by a royal court; the capacity of civic institutions to give voice to the interests of the Syracusan political class and of the ruling family; the interaction between royal and civic spaces; the role of elites in the di√cult political transition following Hiero’s death and the short reign of his grandson Hieronymos.