The Archaeological Parks of Paestum and Velia, in southern Italy, presented “ELEA. Città da fondare” (Elea, a city to be founded) on 12 October, a game about the founding of the Greek city of Elea in the 6th century BC by Greeks from Phocaea fleeing the Persian advance.
The game has a digital version, including an online edition for secondary schools, and a board-game version. Over five rounds, five social groups — priests, warriors, builders, farmers and merchants — propose, debate and vote on decisions about housing, defence, public works, growth and form of government.
Choices follow two perspectives inspired by Parmenides’ thought: one favours each group, the other considers the city as a whole. In the digital version the app acts as the “Grammateus”, the guide who explains the effects of each decision, and at the end unexpected events such as crises and conflicts appear. Players can build dozens of different, historically plausible cities.
The game was created and co-written by Annamaria Gimigliano, co-produced with the company AMONG and developed with the Italian Philosophical Society, using European NextGenerationEU funds to make museums more accessible. The parks’ director, Tiziana D’Angelo, sees it as a different and engaging way to tell the story of Elea.
