Quanti templi per la Vittoria di Himera? : Nuove evidenze dall'Athenaion di Siracusa

This paper investigates the impact that the battle of Himera had on the architectural culture of the main poleis of Sicily, with particular attention to the archaeological context of the temple of Athena in Syracuse. The representation of victory and the affirmation of a new geopolitical order passes through material culture, through the reconfiguration of sacred spaces and the reworking of historical facts. The traditional identification of the Athenaion of Syracuse with one of the Temples of Victory erected by Gelon at the expense of the defeated is not based on any convincing literary reference. The excavations carried out a century ago around the temple of Athena identified a significant deposit of Panathenaic amphoras. The prize vases were discovered into the so-called Deinomenid backfill, an archaeological layer sealed during the Deinomenid tyranny in conjunction with the building of the temple of Athena. As for the Perserschutt on the Athenian Acropolis, the archaeological material from the backfill constitutes the terminus post quem for the building of the surviving temple of Athena. The investigation focuses on the following aspects: 1) (puzzling) identification of the temples of Victory between monumental remains and historiography; 2) reassessment of the historical, archaeological and architectural context of the Athenaion of Syracuse through material and monumental evidence; 3) assessment of the building programme promoted by the different poleis and tyrannies in order to celebrate the joint victory over the Carthaginians.