Persianao, mago e guerriero. Note sulla caratterizzazione di Mani e dei manichei nelle fonti greco-latine del IV secolo

The perception of cultural otherness in Late Antiquity and within the Christian or pagan milieu shows a very interesting case of condemnation, about which these two sides of the Roman society were in agreement. The prophet Mani was in fact the target of a shared feeling of disapproval towards an alien faith strongly characterised by its “Persian” provenance. Greek and Latin authors, starting with the Neo-Platonic Alexander of Lycopolis, emphasised the links between Mani and the Persian Empire, where he lived, under the patronage of the king of kings Šābuhr I. The polemic against Mani and his dualistic doctrine, labelled as “heretical”, was strengthened by means of added epithets such as “Persian”, “Magician” and “Warlord”, drawing upon a well-established repository of bias and stereotyped formulae belonging to the Roman and Hellenistic culture.