Formazione e sviluppo del confine politico tra Oriente e Occidente in Anatolia centrale tra il X–VII sec. a.C.

Abstract

This paper argues that well before the 5th century bc divide deriving from the Persian Wars, an initial demarcation of a border separating the Aegean and western-central Anatolia from the rest of Asia emerged in the context of the formation of the Phrygian political identity at the beginning of the 1st millennium bc. After the formation phase of an Early Phrygian identity built upon the cultural interaction with the post-Hittite city-states in east-central Anatolia — beginning in the second half of the 9th century bc and increasingly so with the charismatic figure of Midas in the 8th century bc — this border was activated in a contrastive way until it evolved into a frontier which was decisive in defining the political boundaries of the East as depicted in the Iliad. In turn, the spread and adoption of the Homeric epos in Anatolia helped reinforce a division between East and West during the process of redefining of political and social identity that took place during the 8th century bc. This study relies on a close reading of Santo Mazzarino’s Fra Oriente e Occidente and on the tenacity with which he identified, in the centuries preceding the Persian Wars, a rich formative phase in the process of defining the contrasts between the two regions.