Mort du roi, mort du corps politique : l’irruption de la guerre civile à la mort d’Alexandre dans les Historiae Alexandri Magni de Quinte-Curce
Quintus Curtius Rufus did not end his Historiae Alexandri Magni with Alexander the Great’s death in 323 B.C. but continued his narrative for a few chapters to recount the stasis that followed in Babylon, culminating in the murder of three hundred seditious Macedonian infantrymen by Perdiccas. Accord...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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University of Ottawa & Laval University
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Cahiers des Études Anciennes |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/etudesanciennes/6015 |
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| Summary: | Quintus Curtius Rufus did not end his Historiae Alexandri Magni with Alexander the Great’s death in 323 B.C. but continued his narrative for a few chapters to recount the stasis that followed in Babylon, culminating in the murder of three hundred seditious Macedonian infantrymen by Perdiccas. According to the author, these events foreshadow the wars of the Diadochi, characterized as bella ciuilia. This article demonstrates that Curtius reflects on the mechanism that leads to the irruption of civil war in the body politic through his account of the 323 stasis which is intended to be exemplary for the Roman present. To this end, he develops a theoretical discourse on monarchy based on an identification of the king’s body to the body politic and re-elaborates the Macedonian events in the light of Roman experiences of civil conflict. This study leads us to point to new elements in favor of dating the Historiae Alexandri Magni to Vespasian’s reign. |
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| ISSN: | 0317-5065 1923-2713 |