Άρμόζειν καί διαλλάσσειν: établir l'harmonie, régler la concorde. Privilèges et droits de la royauté au IVe siècle av. J.-C.

Abstract

In the rhetorical context of Plutarch, De Alexandri fortuna 6 = Mor. 329 A-C the representation of the king as ἀρμόστής and διαλλακτής presupposes the oecumenical ideas developing into a vision of universal ὀμὀνοια and an image of ideal king in the philosophical tradition of Hellenism. However it should be placed at the convergence oftwo separate intellectual paths going back to rhetoric and sophistic between the end of the 5th and the 4th centuries B. C. According to the rhetoric, the action of ἀρμόζειν and διαλλάσσειν fits into the attributes expressing the royal philanthropy. In some milieux of the sophistic, the brotherhood and unity of mankind without distinction between Greeks and Barbarians were predicated as a part of a set of ideas challenging the democratic polis and its laws.