Il re Agatocle nello spazio ionico: prospettive e modelli

In 306 B.C. Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, proclaims himself basileus by imitation of the Diadochi of Alexander: this date marks his political life and the definition of autocratic power in Syracuse and in Sicily. Above all, Agathocles was a great strategos: according to Diodorus he based his basileia on army, territory, and military enterprises. Before 306, his largest and most famous enterprise is his expedition to Libya; after becoming king, Agathocles turns back to Italy and to the Ionian area. In this strategic plan, he resumes some aspects of Dionysius’ political project: in fact Dionysius and Alexander the Great were his most important models. At the same time, Agathocles wanted a stronger role in the Mediterranean balance of power. Unfortunately this stage is badly documented both in literary and historiographic sources, but it’s evident he pursued a meaningful relationship not only with Ptolemy of Egypt, but with Macedon and the Macedonians. The focus of this political relation was the island of Corcyra: it was besieged by Cassander and freed by Agathocles. The Syracusan king gave it as dowry to his daughter Lanassa, who married Pyrrhus in 295 and then, in 291, Demetrius Poliorcetes: the latter probably intended to enlarge his power towards the West and particularly towards Sicily. At that moment, Corcyra was the centre of a network of relations among the new Hellenistic kings.