La guerre, les Grecs d'Italie et l'affirmation d'une identité indigène. Sur la légende d'origine des Samnites

Abstract

From the third quarter of the V.c. B.C. the Greeks of Magna Graecia found themselves submitted to the pressure of Italic peoples, Campanians, Lucanians, Brettians, bound to the Samnites of the Central Apennine, who were then moving into position, breaking up the former equilibrium and giving a new physiognomy to the whole area, even to the extent of taking possession of some of their cities (Cumae, Poseidônia). The original legend which then took shape to describe in the eyes of Hellenic people the identity of the populations emphasizes their military disposition, but through a ritualised process of forced emigration of youths dedicated to the god of war, something without equivalent in the Hellenic world : "sacred Springtime". That tradition thus underscored for the Greeks the barbaric nature of those peoples, but it corresponded to a vindication of identity by those Italic tribes themselves, who through it created for their own sake a myth of origin grounded in that custom felt as different from the uses of other peoples they were in contact with, in accordance with the principle of constrative identity.