Ricerc@Sapienza

This article deals with the interaction between Thucydides’ and Herodotus’ accounts of the history of ancient Macedonia. The starting point is Thucydides’ narrative of the expedition of Sitalkes, king of the Odrysians, against Perdicca II in 429/8 BC (Thuc. 2. 95-101). Thucydides adopts a narrative scheme frequently used by Herodotus for the military campaign of a king, and responds to some characteristic features of Herodotus’ historiography (ethnography, geography, captivating tales about the past). The paper focuses on Thuc. 2. 98 - 100. 2. Herodotus’ account of Xerxes’ march is clearly a subtext to Thucydides’ narrative of Sitalkes’ march towards Macedonia (2. 98). Moreover, Thucydides integrates and partially distances himself from Herodotus’ tale about the origins of the Macedonian kings (Hdt. 8. 137-139), and writes an account of Macedonian expansion (2. 99 - 100. 2) according to the criteria established in the Archaeology of Book I. This interaction between the two great historians is also a hint of the relevance of Macedonia in fifth century Greece, and offers a glimpse of a wider Athenian debate – a historiographical, but above all political debate – about the Macedonian kingdom.