Problemi di struttura e di cronologia compositiva nelle Elleniche di Callistene

An entry from Photius’ Lexicon, first published in 1984, reports information allegedly derived from the first book of Hellēnika by Callisthenes of Olynthus. Relying on this passage, which mentions the Arcadian militia of the Eparitoi, the author defends the manuscript tradition of another fragment of Callisthenes (FGrHist 124 F 8). The presence of two references to the decade between Leuctra and Mantinea within two fragments of the first book of Hellēnika suggests that Callisthenes attributed particular importance to the events of 371–362 BCE. On this basis, the author argues that the aftermath of Leuctra allowed Callisthenes to shed light on the crisis of Spartan hegemony—a theme likely central to the Hellēnika. A final reflection concerns the composition and publication of Callisthenes’ historiographical corpus: it is plausible that Callisthenes worked on multiple texts in parallel, revising them over time. As a result, it is not possible to establish a fixed chronology for the writing and publication of his corpus.