Beyond War. Personal, Cultural and Economic Factors in Hellenistic Politics
10th–13th September 2025
Università degli studi di Bergamo-Dipartimento di Lettere, Filosofia e Comunicazione
The HeRoM project examines interstate relations in the third to the second century BC through an interdisciplinary lens. The project’s objective is to elucidate the characteristics of the Western and Eastern Mediterranean multipolarity prior to and during the advent of Rome’s unipolarity. By examining the deployment of hard and soft power by political actors, the project aims to elucidate the geopolitical dynamics among Hellenistic basileiai and other actors during the height of their power in the 3rd century BCE. Additionally, it will investigate the Eastern and Western responses to Rome’s ascendance as a prominent player in the Mediterranean system.
In the context of the Mediterranean East, the HeRoM project examines the competitive dynamics among Hellenistic basileiai and other political actors during the third century.
It considers the deployment of hard and soft power by political entities to elucidate the formal and informal power dynamics that prevailed in Mediterranean multipolar systems.
This project examines the financial, informational and cultural strategies political actors deploy within a multipolar system to enhance their power, consolidate their position and influence, and co-opt other political actors.
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The 2025 HeRoM International Conference Beyond War. Personal, Cultural and Economic Factors in Hellenistic Politics is scheduled to take place in Bergamo between September 10 and 13. The conference will focus on the themes mentioned above pertaining to the third-century Hellenistic Mediterranean.
Particular attention will be paid to the personal connections and political relationships that influenced domestic and foreign policies in the Hellenistic Mediterranean from the establishment of the Hellenistic kingdoms in 306 B.C. These new political structures were based on the communal ethnic origins and life experiences of their rulers. The personal relationships among members of Hellenistic establishments underwent significant transformations during the third century. These changes had a profound impact on political events and were, in turn, shaped by them.
Furthermore, by analysing the relationships between major and minor entities, the project aims to elucidate the local impact of multipolar interactions and to shed light on the involvement of weakly positioned political entities in geopolitical competition beyond the battlefield.
The conference will concentrate on contributions from the late fourth and third centuries. Nevertheless, it will also acknowledge research on Hellenistic Multipolarity from the early second century until 188 BC.
Link per seguire da remoto: https://meet.google.com/iqp-skhf-xjy
Day 1 – Wednesday, 10th
Università degli studi di Bergamo, Sede di Sant’Agostino, piazzale Sant’Agostino, 2
24129 Bergamo,
Aula 5 Castoldi
14:00
Institutional greetings
Monica D’Agostini (Università degli studi di Bergamo)
The HeRoM project. More than Doriktetos Chora: The Importance of Relations for the Hellenistic World
14.30
Sheila Ager (University of Waterloo)
Opening Remarks
14:50
William Greenwalt (Santa Clara University)
Argead Macedonian Polities: Evolving from the Tribe to the State
16:00
Edward M. Anson (University of Arkansas)
Mission Abandoned: Alexander, the Hyphasis, and the Historical Tradition
16:30
Joseph Roisman (Colby College)
Hellenistic Frenemies
17:00
Elizabeth D. Carney (Clemson University)
Molossian/Macedonian Conflicts: Stage I: Personal and Dynastic
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Day 2 – Thursday, 11th
Università degli studi di Bergamo, Sede di Sant’Agostino, piazzale Sant’Agostino, 2
24129 Bergamo,
Aula 5 Castoldi
9:00
Frances Pownall (University of Alberta)
Antipater’s Forgotten Sons: The Power Dynamics of Cassander’s Brothers in the Wars of the Diadochi
9:30
Sabine Müller (Marburg University)
Marsyas of Pella, Geopolitics, and the Macedonian Tradition
10:00
Joel Allen (The City University of New York)
Heir Traffic Control: Generational Diplomacy and the Rise of Pyrrhus
11:20
Keynote: Franca Landucci (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano)
Antigonus’ Puzzling Case
14:20
John Holton (Newcastle University)
Monetization and Multipolarity: Framing the Dynamics and Practices of early Hellenistic State Consolidation
14:50
Charlotte van Regenmortel (University of Liverpool)
Beyond the Battlefield: Military Agreements and the Politics of Manpower in the Hellenistic Mediterranean
15:20
Katerina Panagopoulou (University of Crete)
Antigonid and Cretan Interactions: the Pretensions of Cydonia, Polyrrhenia and other pro-Antigonid Cretan States
16:40
Manuela Mari (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna)
The Elite of a Greek City and its Transformations. Amphipolis from the Macedonian Conquest to the End of the Antigonid Period.
17:10
Marek J. Olbrycht (Rzeszów University)
The Rise of the Seleukids and their City Foundations in the Upper Satrapies (Parthia, Areia, and Margiana)
17:40
Rocco Palermo (Bryn Mawr College)
Seeing Like (Being Far From) a State. Landscape, Settlements, and the Archaeology of Rural Communities in Seleucid Period Mesopotamia
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Day 3 – Friday 12th
Univ. di Bergamo, Sede Pignolo (“Baroni”) via Pignolo, 123
24121 Bergamo
Aula 16
9:30
Tim Howe (St. Olaf College)
What is in a Name? Ptolemy I’s Egyptian Titles and Successor Politics
10:00
Alessandro Cavagna (Università degli Studi di Milano)
“Le roi est mort, vive le roi!” Numismatic Memories of Deceased Kings in Ptolemaic Egypt
11:05
Paul A. Johstono (USAF Air Command & Staff College)
Loosely Coupled Systems, Organized Anarchy, and Bellicosity, 280-221 BC
11:35
Francesca Della Guardia (Università degli studi di Bergamo)
The Role of Berenice II in Ptolemaic International Relations
12:05
Gillian Ramsey Neugebauer (Campion College at the University of Regina)
With Friends Like These… Conflicting Interests among Ptolemaic and Seleucid Philoi
14:30
Ioanna Kralli (Ionian University)
Aspects of the Diplomacy Exercised by the Peloponnesian States in the Hellenistic Period (3rd – early 2nd centuries BC)
15:00
Omar Coloru (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro)
Aratus’ Network of Relationships and the Policy of the Achaean League
16:10
Alex McAuley (University of Auckland)
φίλος τοῦ βασιλέως, φίλος τῆς πόλεως. Personal Relationships between Court and City
16:40
Graham Wrightson (South Dakota State University)
“Now or never:” Antiochos III’s Abortive Assault on Pergamum
Day 4 – Saturday, 13th
Università degli studi di Bergamo, Sede Pignolo (“Baroni”) via Pignolo, 123
24121 Bergamo
Aula 16
9:30
Sulochana R. Asirvatham (Montclair State University)
The New Panhellenism in Plutarch’s Agis, Kleomenes, Philopoimen and Aratos
10:00
Emma Nicholson (University of Exeter)
Sculpting Relations from Below: Greeks and Macedonians, Greeks and Romans
11:15
Matteo Cadario (Università degli Studi di Udine)
La presenza dei magistrati romani nelle città e nei santuari ellenistici e le novità introdotte dagli onori ellenistici sulle modalità della loro celebrazione
11:45
Andrew Erskine (The University of Edinburgh)
Intellectuals and Hellenistic Diplomacy
14:35
Arthur Eckstein (University of Maryland)
Concluding Remarks and Roundtable
PRIN Rountable Members:
Mattia Balbo (Università degli Studi di Torino)
Silvia Barbantani (UCSC di Milano)
Edoardo Bianchi (Università degli Studi di Verona)
Fabrizio Biglino (Università degli Studi di Torino)
Pierre-Luc Brisson (Université Laval)
Lucia Degiovanni (Università degli studi di Bergamo)
Jacopo Lampeggi (Università di Torino)
Marcello Valente (Università del Piemonte Orientale).