Sofisti, élites urbane e mediazioni politiche: l'impegno di Elio Aristide per le città d'Asia

It has been known since the late 1960s that the speeches of Aelius Aristides can be read as valuable sources for investigating the social milieu of the ruling class of Asia Minor: both Charles Behr's and Salvatore Nicosia's seminal essays on upper-class pilgrims to the sanctuary of Asclepius at Pergamum are good examples of how, through the Sacred tales of Aristides (or. 47-52 Keil), we can focus on prominent figures, politicians, notables involved in the administration of the province of Asia and attending the sanctuary of Asclepius for health or simply religious reasons. A similar approach can be successfully applied to works that have attracted, so far, much less attention than the Sacred Tales. In particular, Aristides’ speeches on cities (17-27 Keil) can provide a useful tool for understanding how the local elites of each city intended to represent themselves to Roman power, on the one hand, and to the other Asian cities with which they competed for privileges, on the other. In this talk, omitting for the sake of time the complex “dossier” of speeches dedicated to Smyrna (or. 17-21 Keil), I will briefly discuss excerpts from On the Concord to the Cities (23 Keil, delivered before the κοινόν, i.e., the assembly of the cities of Asia), the Eleusinian oration (or. 22) and the Panegyric at Cyzicus (or. 27) to show how, for several reasons, Aristides' praise of the cities must be taken as extremely reliable for understanding, from a historical perspective, the self-representation of urban elites.