Sic astra mereri. Un’analisi della Controversia de statua viri fortis di Draconzio

There has been an unprecedented resurgence in rhetorical and especially declamation studies as part of 5th century Vandal Africa. One of Dracontius’s Romulea is most striking in this respect: it is number 5 of the collection, called Controversia de statua viri fortis. In the poem, a rhetorical exercise in hexameters, the author updates a topical subject of declamation schools, the contrast between a dives and a pauper, while adding multiple literarylayers, especially those from Virgin to Lucan, which however do not disguise Dracontius’s outstanding interest in claiming his part in reviving declamation studies in a changed historical age and at very different latitudes from those where such phenomenon was initially born and spread around. The text, which is a mere three hundred verses or so, can therefore be read from many different perspectives, which we try to pursue herein: from its relationship with the ‘classic’ tradition of declamation schools to the use of a rich repertoireof traditional historical and mythological exempla, and maybe an emphasis on issues that were extremely relevant to the political milieu of the time and to the author’s own story, first and foremost the need to live in a tyranny