Home > Catalogue > Lexis > Num. 40 (n.s.) – Giugno 2022 – Fasc. 1 > Hermotimus and Marcus Aurelius

Lexis | Num. 40 (n.s.) – Giugno 2022 – Fasc. 1

« previous article | next article »
cover
cover
Research Article

Hermotimus and Marcus Aurelius

Gianluigi Tomassi    Independent Scholar    

VIEW PDF DOWNLOAD PDF

abstract

Lucian loves to manipulate iconic literary types with biographical details of contemporary celebrities thereby creating an intriguing dialectical exchange between fantasy and reality. Following this pattern, the main character of the Hermotimus both descends from the immortal philosophers of comedy and reveals some traits of the ‘philosopher in purple’ Marcus Aurelius. If the highlighted similarities between the image of Hermotimus and Marcus Aurelius’ life and are convincing, it becomes possible to suggest dating the dialogue to around 176 AD.

Published
June 30, 2022
Accepted
Jan. 14, 2022
Submitted
Aug. 25, 2021
Language
IT

Keywords: Hermotimus • Roman History • Marcus Aurelius • Lucian • Second Sophistic

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Lexis/2724-1564/2022/01/012

Copyright: © 2022 Gianluigi Tomassi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.