Il lato oscuro dei pastori, tra latrocinia e coniurationes.

The paper focuses on the pastorum coniuratio that took place in Apulia in 185-184 BC. Livy reports this episode (Liv. 39,29,8-9) and highlights the danger of a rebellion (motus), within a subversive project (coniuratio), which manifests itself through pernicious guerrilla tactics (latrocinia), as shown by the analysis of the words used. A few chapters later (Liv. 39,41,6), Livy returns again to mention the pastorum coniuratio, together with the quaestio de Bacchanalibus: the use of the same lexicon suggests that a real closeness between the two phenomena was felt. They arose within the social unrest that swept through central and southern Italy during the 2nd century BC. Although they involved heterogeneous social groups, these rebellious movements should be considered part of a vast but fundamentally unitary whole.