While research on Sicily has changed in the last decades and focused on the Hellenistic period, statues and the honorary practise are still neglected in scholarship. Although Cicero’s descriptions of the late republican sicilian towns create the impression of cityscapes overcrowded by statues, it never lead to research from an archaeological perspective. This paper provides an overview of the honorary practice in Sicily: who were the agents and who the recipients, where have statues been set up and why? Furthermore it discusses the urban and socio-historical context and the material of the monuments based on inscriptions on statue bases and marble plaques, statue bases in situ and the sculptural remains.
Talk
The display of statues in Hellenistic Sicily
Rebecca Henzel