two. Synchronizing Times II
West and East, Sicily and the Orient
43WHEN IS A SYNCHRONISM
JUST A COINCIDENCE?
In chapter 23 of the PoeticsAristotle begins his discussion of epic. The first point
he makes is that epic should be like tragedy in its plots and should be about one
whole and complete action. Epic should not be like history, he says, in which there
is no unity of action but only of time; historians have to mention whatever hap-
pened in their time period, and “each of these things may have a quite casual inter-
relation” (w|n e{kaston wJ" e[tucen e[cei pro;" a[llhla, 1459a24).^1 As an example of
the inconsequential random scatterings of events in time, Aristotle mentions two
crucial battles fought 500 miles apart in “480 b.c.e.,” one near Athens and one in
northern Sicily: “If one thinks of the same time, we have the battle of Salamis
and the battle of Himera against the Carthaginians not directed to achieve any
identical purpose” (w{sper ga;r kata; tou;" aujtou;" crovnou" h{ tÆ ejn Salami'ni
ejgevneto naumaciva kai; hJ ejn Sikeliva/ Karchdonivwn mavch oujde;n pro;" to; aujto;
sunteivnousai tevlo", 1459a24 – 27). Aristotle is presumably relying on Herodotus
for this synchronism of Salamis and Himera, but he does not give the extra detail
reported by Herodotus, who tells us that the Sicilians said these two victories were
actually won on the same day (7.166).^2
Aristotle displays his usual tough-mindedness in refusing to attribute any sig-
nificance to the link in time between these two great battles.^3 He sees no causal link