Riflessioni sull’imperialismo romano: Rodi, Roma e la "Cronaca di Lindo"

The author discusses the relations between Rome and Rhodes in the time span between the Third Macedonian War and the First Mithridatic War, in order to analyze the thesis of a recent book by C. Higbie about the Lindian Chronicle. It is problematic to read this Rhodian document as evidence for a local reaction against Roman expansion. Some aspects of Rhodian historiography are indeed influenced by local pride. Anyway, although a Roman political party deliberately caused damages to Rhodian economy immediately after the Third Macedonian War, very good relations followed soon. Moreover, the re-creation of their past by the Greeks does not happen, as usual, and especially in epigraphic documents, as a reaction to foreign powers such as the Romans. On the contrary, the recollection of past myths and ancient history in inscriptions, the collecting of relics and the rewriting of ancient text are, generally speaking, a long tradition attested also for previous and less difficult times.