Memnon, historien d’Héraclée du Pont : commentaire historique

摘要

Memnon wrote a local history, the one of his native city, Heraclea Pontica, megarian colony located in the Black Sea. His chronicle is partially preserved thanks to fragments, more or less substantial, summarized in Photius’ Library. The latter passed on to us only a part of Memnon’s work, since he related only the facts contained in books IX to XVI, which cover a period from the 60’s of the third century to the 40’s of the first century BC., but with a big gap between the mid-third century to the arrival of the Romans. The text was the object of a detailed historical commentary which highlights the inconsistencies of the story and the events for which Memnon is our only source. My research also aims to identify the historical method of Memnon through the study of the recurring themes in the text and the analysis of the chronological order of events. It is obvious that Photius’ intervention has incidences on the chronological organization initiated by Memnon, nevertheless it seems that the method of the historian of Heraclea has distorted from the start the chronology of events he related. Furthermore, analysis of the text allowed to identify the objectives of Memnon who tries to revive the glorious past of Heraclea and to denounce the excesses of the Roman rule, especially to his city of origin. The author of the History of Heraclea remains unknown but it seems to me that his literary activity should be placed in the second half of the second century AD.