Una città in attesa: Atene, Alessandro e la Macedonia tra realtà presente e memoria del passato

The aim of this paper is to highlight some prima facie contradictory aspects characterizing Athenian policies in the age of Alexander. In the first part, the argument concentrates on prosopography: it is shown, also in the light of new insights provided by Hypereides’ speech Against Diondas, that Athens was at the time dominated by a conservative political group in principle unwilling to undertake the risk of a new confrontation with Macedonia. In the second part, it is argued that while this group was in the process of implementing a programme of vigorous civic revitalization and boosting internal cohesion, no constructive policy was to be detected in external relations. The focus on the model of Periklean Athens and its political and cultural achievements thus in large part turns out to be a void, though earnest, performance of a past, long-gone grandeur.