Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente, Supplemento 1. La Nike di Samotracia tra Macedoni e Romani. Un riesame del monumento nel quadro dell’assimilazione dei Penati agli Dei di Samotracia

Description

Despite its enormous fame, the Nike of Samothrace remains a work of unclear interpretation. There is still a lively discussion on its chronology, on the reasons for its dedication, on the structure that contained it, on its relationship with the sanctuary of Theoi Megaloi. Unfortunately, the archaeological excavations have not been able to solve most of these questions. However, it seems certain to me that Nike was hospitalized in an enclosed space, most likely a naiskos, within which the statue on its base in the form of a prow turned towards the heart of the sanctuary. As has happened in many other cases when discussing the ways of perception of a work of art in the Greek and Roman world, one feels the distance with the modern visual system, which rests on different parameters, forged during the Italian Renaissance. The Nike, most likely, was not visible from the outside, and in any case did not dominate the surrounding environment, as has often been hypothesized by imagining that it was visible even from the sea: its relationship with nature was non-existent. As for the motivation for the dedication, the hypothesis that at the moment seems most persuasive to me is the one offered by Olga Palagia, that it is a Roman donation following the capture of Perseus, king of the Macedonians, of his family and part of his treasure right in Samothrace, where he had taken refuge. It is conceivable that the dedication was due to Gneo Octavius ​​who, for his victory over Perseus, celebrated a naval triumph in Rome, the day following the sensational triumph of Emilio Paolo, which lasted three days. The Nike was located on a hill where there were some important monuments dedicated by the Macedonian kings, including a neorion probably made by Antigono Gonata for his naval victory over the Ptolemaic fleet in Kos, and a tall column with an honorary statue, dedicated to Philip V. Nike seems to turn its back on these monuments thus declaring the definitive defeat of the Antigonids. In the second part of this work, the reasons why the Romans showed a special interest in the sanctuary of Samothrace in the late Republican age, which quickly became one of the main ones in the Mediterranean, equal in importance to Delphi. [...]