Politica edilizia e immaginario nella Cuma di Aristodemo: aspetti e problemi

The article deals with the building policy and the propaganda held by Aristodemos as tyrant of Cumae from 504 until ca. 485-484 BC, as they are shown by the literary sources and the archaeological contexts. The only one Aristodemos’ public work to be recorded (Plut. Mor. 262A-B) is the digging of a taphros, a ditch, which may correspond to a huge public work and may imply a symbolic new foundation of the city by the tyrant. An ashlar sewer found under the Northern walls drained the dirty waters from the city into the ditch: its imposing and two-channel structure parallels the drain built by the Tarquinii kings in the Roman Forum, thus supporting the hypothesis of close links among Cumae and Rome. The sanctuary on the lower terrace of the acropolis of Cumae was rebuilt by the construction of a retaining wall and of a new bigger temple. Otherwise, through the archaeological picture, our knowledge of the transformations of the city under the tyrant is still fragmentary and uncertain in several public, sacred and private contexts. The traditional hypothesis that Aristodemos established his propaganda by the equation of the battle of Cumae of 524 BC with the Phlegrean Gigantomachy and by his identification with Herakles is tempting but does not rely on convincing arguments.