IL RITRATTO DI MACRONE IN FILONE DI ALESSANDRIA TRA REALTÀ STORICA E IDEALIZZAZIONE

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the figure of the praetorian prefect Macro, from the early stages of his career under the emperor Tiberius. The focus will be on the contrast between the idealised portrait offered by Philo of Alexandria in his Legatio ad Gaium and the more crude and realistic accounts of Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio on the activity and political role of the prefect. The fully positive description by Philo, in particular, is conceived in total antithesis to Caligula’s conduct.