Survival of classical models in Bartolomeo Facio's description of battles. Some considerations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/1593-2214/301Keywords:
Middle Ages, 15th Century, Italy, Bartolomeo Facio, Alfonso V of Aragon, classical authorsAbstract
Facio's work, entitled Rerum gestarum Alphonsi regis libri decem, mainly describes the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples by the Aragonese king Alphonso the Magnanimous. However, the historical events are not only narrated on the basis of contemporary documents, but they are also shaped according to the various patterns provided by classical authors. Thus, in Alphonso's speech to the troops we can find a direct quotation of Cicero, or in Facio's preface there is a blend of arguments taken from Livy's praefatio and Cicero's well-known opinion on Caesar's style. Finally, in the episode on the siege of Gerba and the return of the fleet to Trapani, Facio depicts Alphonso's Tunisian enemies as if they were old Carthaginians, whilst the forced stop of the Aragonese fleet in Trapani allows the historian to establish a wisely disguised comparison with Aeneas' stop at Trapani/Drepanum in the 5th book of the Aeneid.
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