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.
*****
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
Program
Day 1 – Wednesday, 10th
Univ. degli studi di Bergamo
Sede di Sant'Agostino
piazzale Sant'Agostino, 2
24129 Bergamo,
Aula 5 Castoldi
14:15
Institutional greetings
Oreste Trabucco (Università degli studi di Bergamo)
Monica D’Agostini (Università degli studi di Bergamo)
The HeRoM project. More than Doriktetos Chora: The Importance of Relations for the Hellenistic World
Sheila Ager (University of Waterloo)
Opening Remarks
14:50
Session 1: Chair Frances Pownall
William Greenwalt (Santa Clara University)
Argead Macedonian Polities: Evolving from the Tribe to the State
15:20 Discussion & Coffee break
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
17:30 Discussion
****
Day 2 – Thursday, 11th
Univ. degli studi di Bergamo
Sede di Sant'Agostino
piazzale Sant'Agostino, 2
24129 Bergamo,
Aula 5 Castoldi
9:00
Session 2: Chair Edward Anson
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
10:30 Discussion and Coffee Break
11:20
Keynote: Franca Landucci (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano)
Antigonus’ Puzzling Case
12:20 Lunch
14:20
Session 3: Chair Gillian Ramsey Neugebauer
John Holton (Newcastle University)
Monetization and Multipolarity: Framing the Dynamics and Practices of early Hellenistic State Consolidation
14:50
Katerina Panagopoulou (University of Crete)
Antigonid and Cretan Interactions: the Pretensions of Cydonia, Polyrrhenia and other pro-Antigonid Cretan States
15:20
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
15:50 Discussion and Coffee Break
16:40
Marek J. Olbrycht (Rzeszów University)
The Rise of the Seleukids and their City Foundations in the Upper Satrapies (Parthia, Areia, and Margiana)
17:10
Rocco Palermo (Bryn Mawr College)
Seeing Like (Being Far From) a State. Landscape, Settlements, and the Archaeology of Rural Communities in Seleucid Period Mesopotamia
17:40
Alessandro Cavagna (Università degli Studi di Milano)
“Le roi est mort, vive le roi!” Numismatic Memories of Deceased Kings in Ptolemaic Egypt
18:10 Discussion
*****
Day 3 – Friday 12th
Univ. di Bergamo,
Sede Pignolo ("Baroni")
via Pignolo, 123
24121 Bergamo
Aula 16
9:30
Session 4: Chair Alex McAuley
Tim Howe (St. Olaf College)
What is in a Name? Ptolemy I’s Egyptian Titles and Successor Politics
10:00
Paul A. Johstono (USAF Air Command & Staff College)
Loosely Coupled Systems, Organized Anarchy, and Bellicosity, 280-221 BC
10:30 Discussion and Coffee Break
11:30
Francesca Della Guardia (Università degli studi di Bergamo)
The Role of Berenice II in Ptolemaic International Relations
12:00
Gillian Ramsey Neugebauer (Campion College at the University of Regina)
With Friends Like These… Conflicting Interests among Ptolemaic and Seleucid Philoi
12:30 Discussion and Lunch
14:30
Session 5: Chair Manuela Mari
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
15:30 Discussion and Coffee Break
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
17:10 Discussion
Day 4 – Saturday, 13th
Univ. di Bergamo,
Sede Pignolo ("Baroni")
via Pignolo, 123
24121 Bergamo
Aula 16
10:00
Session 6: Chair TBC
Sulochana R. Asirvatham (Montclair State University)
The Rhetoric of Freedom in Plutarch's Post-Classical Lives (revised title)
10:30
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
11:00 Coffee Break
11:30
Andrew Erskine (The University of Edinburgh)
Intellectuals and Hellenistic Diplomacy
12:00 Discussion and Lunch
14:30
Arthur Eckstein (University of Maryland)
Concluding Remarks and Roundtable
*****
15:30 The History of Bergamo and its Monuments. A Walk through Memory.
Giulia Andreoletti and Federica Bagini, University of Bergamo
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)
Carlo Lualdi (University of Warwick)
Marcello Valente (Università del Piemonte Orientale)