Shifting Identities in Thucydides’s Sicily

This chapter explores the politics of identity in the Sicilian theater of the Peloponnesian War. Initially, most poleis in Sicily formed alliances based on ethnicity (either Dorian or Ionian), a form of kinship diplomacy that was typical in Greek politics. Camarina, however, allied with the Ionians despite being Dorian due to its unique polis identity, which had been shaped by hostility toward its mother city, Syracuse. Political decisions were thus conditioned by identities, and these, in turn, were often shaped by political rhetoric. An analysis of two speeches of the Syracusan politician Hermocrates, as rewritten by Thucydides, reveals a series of arguments, based on different identities in different contexts, that persuaded poleis to follow his recommendations. Identity thus played a central role in Greek politics, since the changing salience of different identities enabled poleis to make decisions on the basis of multiple identities over a short time.