Lo scontro tra Roma e Cartagine nella riflessione illuministica a Napoli sulla “rivalità delle nazioni”

Abstract

In the mid-eighteenth century, the circles of the Neapolitan Enlightenment analysed the conflict between Rome and Carthage, its remote causes and pretexts in its different phases, and the rise of Roman imperialism, in order to reflect on the factors promoting peace between nations – above all, commerce – and the search for balance in international politics. Through the central figure of Antonio Genovesi, who reflects dialectically on the work of Montesquieu, a modern consciousness emerges that rejects Roman propaganda about just war while seeking to understand the link between the “jealousy of trade” and the possible emergence of wars.