Augustan Principate

Preface; 1 Introduction; 2 Materials, technique and building devices; 3 The foundation and the core of the podium and of the tribunal; 4 The measuring system and proportions of the temple; 5 The facing of he podium and the tribunal; 6 The superstructure of temple; 7 Catalogue of fragments fiund during the exavations; 6 The style; 9 Workshop and tradition 10 The reconstruction drawings of the Augustan temple; 11 Conclusion; Appendix 1 A rebuilding of the Metellan temple?; Appendix 2 Early modern graffiti on the superstructure of the temple of Castor and Pollux; Appendix 3 Catalogue of drawings, models and plaster casts from the Temple of Castor and Pollux, Forum Romanum, in Sir John Soane's Museum, London; Bibliography; Photo credits.

Focusing on a digression included in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Roman Antiquities concerning the practice of manumission in Rome during the reign of the king Servius Tullius, this contribution aims to clarify the meaning of the historian’s disapproval of the Roman elite’s tendency to free slaves in their will as an expression of social ostentation, which was increasing in the first decades of the Augustan Principate, and also that of his proposal to scrutinize ex-slaves with the same censorial review used for senators and equestrians. In this light, beyond any interpretation as a rhetorical exercise on the decline of moral habits, the passage can be read as it relates to the debate that flourished until limits governing testamentary manumission were introduced by the Lex Fufia (2 BCE). In particular, considering the Roman Antiquities’ time of composition (ca 7 BCE), we may suppose that Dionysius was offering advice on the subject to specific figures such as his protector, the jurist Aelius Tubero , as well as Octavian Augustus

The paper examines the upsurge of piracy in the last century of the Roman Republic, to underline its impact on politics. Analysing the testimonials about the period after 105 BC, we can appreciate that as well as interfering in the wars against Mithridates, the fight against the pirates who were also infesting the western Mediterranean, gained a meaningful role in the political agenda. Some prominent figures on the public scene engaged by the institutions to solve the problem, exploited it to gain extraordinary powers that would take on a different meaning depending on the circumstances and their personalities, as shown by Pompey’s command of 67 BC. He took advantage of his skill to dissimulate his ambitions and the auctoritas he enjoyed, to obtain a position that, despite modern historiography’s difficulty with establishing its juridical limits, was the first step in his quest to rise to absolute power. This continued not only the following year with the new command that the Lex Manilia granted him, but also in the next decade when Pompey consolidated his position, taking advantage of the financial difficulties linked to the shortage of food supplies, not unlike those caused previously by the pirates’ incursions. All of this is witnessed on the one hand by Cicero, whose opinion of this figure became gradually more negative in the period from 66-49 BC, on the other by Imperial Age historiography. Centuries afterwards the latter was able to perceive and underline more and more explicitly the subversive novelty of the extraordinary command given to Pompey to eradicate piracy, bringing out its major role in the process leading to the decline of the Republican institutions and the creation of the Principality.

The references to the cult of Vesta included in numerous excerpts of Seneca the Elder’s collection of Controversiae offer a proof of the technical competence of declaimers in recalling the conditions prescribed by pontifical law for being admitted and kept in this priesthood, of which we are informed by the antiquarian tradition. Furthermore, these passages, which also show the importance recognized from an ethical viewpoint to values such as castitas and pudicitia in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, can be interpreted in light of some special episodes and dispositions stated by the historiographical tradition which reveal their interest in promoting and consolidating the cult of the Goddess Vesta protector of Rome’s Empire. Beyond the scholastic practice, the same interest is equally shared in the literary sphere by Seneca the Elder, as we can understand from the quotations within his work of excerpts from Controversiae dealing with Vestals

The paper examines the peculiarities of Cassius Dio’s narrative in Julio-Claudian books of his «Roman History». Dio’s work, as a whole, reveals a remarkable combination of contradictory features, which are specifically mirrored in books LI–LXIII. Here he combines traditional annalistic narration with considerable biographical component, an antiquarian interest for Roman past with actual political allusions of his own time, superficially descriptive account of the events with rather thin penetration into an essence of things and characters of mentioned persons, aristocratic class bias with realness (sometimes even cynicism) of author’s view on the course of history and human nature, multiple rhetorical stamps with genuine dramatics in drawing situations and characters, banality (or even naivety) of many his judgments with originality of offered answers to challenges of time, and so on. Dio’s personality and topical problems of Severan age are directly reflected in the general character and maintenance of the Julio-Claudian books. Because of his own life experience and assiduous study of the beginnings of the Principate, Dio was convinced of possibility to unite monarchical rule and liberty (in its senatorial sense). Especially, Augustus’ example showed how a decent output from the turn of civil wars and an imperial arbitrariness can be found. Hence the historian’s special interest to the first imperial dynasty results.

Anchoring can be a powerful strategy to legitimize innovation and changes, but its success also depends on the choice of the anchor. If a given anchor proves to be successful in one context, it may be purposefully employed again and again in highly different circumstances. The foundation of Rome is a case in point: major innovations were repeatedly related to the city’s most distant beginnings, and founders of Rome came to act as mirrors through which the Romans recognized the novelties of the present in a primordial past.
A concrete application of this idea is the phenomenon of ‘ktistic renewal’: redefining the concept of foundation, influential agents of innovation could be seen as ‘second founders’ of the city. This epithet was famously applied to the emperor Augustus, comparing him to Romulus. The way his innovative regime was anchored in turn functioned as an anchor for later innovations. In Late Antiquity, the apostles Peter and Paul were also seen as new founders of a reborn, Christian Rome. In both periods, foundational figures thus played a role as anchors to legitimate far-reaching religious and political changes. This article examines the repeated recourse to new and second founders in the Augustan Age and Late Antiquity to highlight the success of one anchoring device in two very distinct contexts. Obviously, such double or incremental anchoring may call for innovation in the use of the anchor itself – and that is exactly what this contribution aims to study.

Virtus and Fortuna are the driving forces of history in Florus' History, which is entirely structured and dedicated to the sequence of wars and battles. The descriptions of battles, based on these principles, form a basic narrative in Florus, and were therefore rightly studied systematically. However, besides specific narrative techniques that are used to construct these battle narratives, I argue in the following that one can also observe developments in these battle narratives throughout Florus' work. As I shall show, parallel to his leitmotif of a growing up of the populus Romanus in four steps that eventually ends in his work with the transition from the third to the fourth stage under Octavian/Augustus, the battle descriptions also change, particularly during and after the civil war period.

Os principais objetivos desta pesquisa consistiram em: 1) Compreender a dinâmica interna da visualidade romana durante as transformações políticas que levaram ao fim da República e ao início do Principado, considerando as mudanças pelas quais as imagens passaram desde o Segundo Triunvirato até o fim do governo de Augusto (43 a.C. – 14 d.C.); 2) Compreender o papel que tais imagens, carregadas de agência, tiveram durante esse processo político e como as suas transformações foram responsáveis – a sua maneira – para a edificação e o estabelecimento de uma nova forma de governo em Roma, o Principado de Augusto.

The book "The Roman wolf and Illyrian serpent. Last struggle" is dedicated to the first war that has engulfed the entire area of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is in its fully documented in the ancient source material. Great Illyrian revolt that broke out in the last decade rule of imperator August, or at the beginning of a new era, was a final break with the prehistoric and protohistoric periods in the Illyrian lands, and then enter the historical period. From the end resistance of rebels in September 9. AD. complete a conflict of Roman and Illyrian world, which started 240 years earlier, in the time of the ancient Republic. The causes of the uprising were primarily economic in nature. As occasion served the order on the mobilization of indigenous youth in the auxiliares. Immediately after the riot, recruited natives spread the rebellion with unprecedented speed. Because of the outbreak and spread of uprising, the Romans had to stop an operation of the final subjugation of Germania west of the river Elbe. The uprising in Illyria, which spawned the creation of a unified military - political alliance of rebellious peoples and theirs polities, for then ruling establishment in Rome represented a great danger. War from 6. AD till 9. AD. involved a large military force of 15 legions, and as many auksilijarnih units, and again returned veterans to service. But despite the enormous military power, only a betrayal of the high-ranking rebel officials led to the accelerated collapse of the Union and the fall of Pannonia. A year later he collapsed resistance in the Dinaric belt."

In my paper I examine the use of Sibylline Books during Augustus' reign. I discuss the role of the Sibyl as well as the collection attributed to her in terms of cultural changes and cultural paraphrases. According to my opinion the prophetess had mainly cultural, not ritual significance. I argue for treating the interventions onto corpus of official Sibylline Books made by Augustus in the category of creating the new cultural identity for the inhabitants of the Empire.

Livy's History of Rome was a celebrated classic in his own lifetime. In the tumultuous era of the Roman civil wars, which spanned more than a half century, Livy's readers turned to his account of ancient Roman history for consolation and repose. His treatment of the generations of Rome's paternal and maternal ancestors seems like the stuff of fables or legend: from the grafting of the exiled Aeneas' Trojan branch by marriage on to indigenous and sturdy Latin stock, firmly rooted in Italian soul; through the new roots first planted at Alba Longa by Aeneas' son, Ascanius, and strengthened by 13 generations of Silvian kings; to the series of events that conspire-partly by necessity, and partly by chance-to bring forth the twins, Romulus and Remus, who eventually would restore the Silvian kingdom to their grandfather, its rightful heir, and then immediately depart-following their own "desire to establish" for themselves a new city of their own making in the forests and hills near the Tiber river where they were raised. Once the new city, Rome, is established through divine sanction and Romulus' spirited defense of the principle of numerical superiority over priority in time, the founder of the city fortified the walls upon his Palatine hill and began to shape the character of the people who would reside there, and become Romans.

Augustus’ portrait in Seneca, brev. vitae 4, shows a remarkable concentration
of terms and images related to the imperial power, and it can be compared
with many other Senecan statements in the philosophical works and also in
the tragedies, which are often marked by the theme of the regnum. From the
analysis of the stylistic and metaphorical occurrences Augustus seems to be
portrayed as the antithesis of the sapiens, characterized as a dissatisfied and
unhappy man, who deceives himself with illusory consolations and superficial
statements without seeking for more rational life options.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

«WHAT IS HISTORY GOING TO SAY ABOUT US?» ON SOME ASPECTS AND MOTIFS OF OCTAVIAN AUGUSTUS’ MEMORIAL POLITICS
The article deals with the purposes and means of the memory policy implemented by Octavian Augustus. He was guided by both his personal inclinations and subjective political considerations, as well as by the necessity of legitimizing and validation of his one-man rule. The article’s focus is upon the content and ways of the formation of the historical image Augustus sought to develop in the memory of future generations. There is a polymorphism of this image, which acquired various features depending on the means of its representation and the target audience. Analysis of sources show that Augustus very zealously censored the memory of the civil wars and his own path to power; meanwhile, he calculatedly used the images of the ancient republican past, having formed, in fact, his new vision of that past, corresponding to the tasks of legitimizing the new regime, which, in the perception of most  contemporaries and subsequent generations, simultaneously appeared as a fairly radical break with the previous age, and as its logical continuation or even as the restoration of an idealized past. Augustus also strove to «stylise» himself as one of the heroes of Roman antiquity but, at the same time, aspired to remain in the memory of generations as  he true savior of the fatherland and the creator of the new governmental order.

Prix François Millepierres 2020 (Académie Française).

Dans les odes érotiques, Horace conjugue exaltation de la passion et morale de l’amour : il chante la puissance et les beautés du désir, mais n’en invite pas moins les jeunes filles à se marier, les matrones à être fidèles, les jeunes gens à se contrôler et les vieilles femmes à renoncer à l’amour. Il rompt ainsi avec la tradition qui le précède, de Sappho aux élégiaques latins en passant par Anacréon, Alcée ou Catulle. Pour comprendre cette intrusion de la morale dans le domaine érotique, il faut tenir compte de tout ce qui fonde la lyrique horatienne : l’ambition de devenir une voix de la cité, la nécessité de dire son adhésion au nouveau régime, mais aussi l’intérêt pour la philosophie, y compris l’Académie, dont on sous-évalue l’importance dans son œuvre. Les enjeux moraux sont cependant indissociables des choix poétiques. C’est en poète qu’Horace se fait philosophe, jouant sur la coïncidence de certains motifs proprement lyriques avec une morale d’origine philosophique. C’est également en poète qu’il réconcilie l’exaltation de la passion et la morale, grâce à un jeu sur les genres, les formes et leur pragmatique. Cet ouvrage éclaire la manière dont se tissent, dans les Odes, l’inspiration érotique, le substrat philosophique, le contexte politique et les choix poétiques de celui qui se regarde comme l’inventeur de la lyrique latine.

Zusammenfassung: Vor einer Generation, als Grabungen am Palatin
das Haus des Augustus beim Heiligtum des Apollo zutage brachten,
wurden architektonische Tonreliefs der frühaugusteischen Zeit gefunden.
Von diesen werden hier drei zusammengehörende Typen neu
nach ihrem Inhalt befragt. Sie sind trotz ihres ornamentalen Charakters
Zeitzeugnisse; doch steht Hercules beim Dreifußstreit nicht, wie bisher
zum Teil angenommen, für Marcus Antonius. Da uns der gleiche Relieftypus
am römischen Capitol wie am entsprechenden Heiligtum in
Cosa begegnet, weist er auf den ältesten Orakelgott Jupiter hin. Bei ihm
waren in Rom die sibyllinischen Orakel aufbewahrt, bis Augustus sie
12 v.Chr. in den palatinischen Tempel überführte. Der Plan dazu dürfte
nach Aussage der Campanareliefs schon früher bestanden haben: Apollo
und Hercules versöhnen sich nach dem Willen ihres Vaters Jupiter
und ersetzen ihn als Orakelgott. Der Palatin wurde zum Parnass, und
Hercules hatte in Ostia und Latium Orakelstätten.

Abstract: A generation ago, when excavations at the Palatine unearthed
the house of Augustus near the sanctuary of Apollon, architectural
clay reliefs of the early augustean period were discovered. Of these,
three interrelated types are reanalysed for their meaning. Despite their
ornamental character they need to be treated as documents; contrary
to previous opinion, in the scene depicting an argument about a tripod
Hercules does not stand for Marcus Antonius. The same type of relief
also exists on the Roman Capitol and the Sanctuary in Cosa, and hence
refers to Jupiter as the oldest god of oracles. At the temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus the Sibylline oracles were kept until Augustus transferred them to the Palatine in 12 BC. By the interpretation of the Campana
reliefs proposed here, the plan to transfer the Sibylline oracles was formed earlier: Apollo and Hercules reconcile their diff erences according to the will of their father Jupiter and replace him as the god of oracles. The Palatine became the Parnass, and Hercules had oracles at Ostia and in Latium.

Augustus’ success in implementing monarchical rule at Rome is often attributed to innovations in the symbolic language of power, from the star marking Julius Caesar’s deification to buildings like the Palatine complex and Forum Augustum to rituals like triumphs and funerals. This book illumines Roman subjects’ vital role in creating and critiquing these images, in keeping with the Augustan poets’ sustained exploration of audiences’ role in constructing verbal and visual meaning. From Vergil to Ovid, these poets publicly interpret, debate, and disrupt Rome’s evolving political iconography, reclaiming it as the common property of an imagined republic of readers. In showing how these poets used reading as a metaphor for the mutual constitution of Augustan authority and a means of exercising interpretive libertas under the principate, this book offers a holistic new vision of Roman imperial power and its representation that will stimulate scholars and students alike. (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, spring 2018)

La nascita e la diffusione dei cicli statuari giulio-claudii come autentico fenomeno sociale caratterizzante la società urbana romana della prima età imperiale, indissolubilmente legate all'affermazione dell'idea dinastica ai vertici della res publica romana. Augusto elabora i valori di una vera e propria religione civile che riconosce in lui e in quanti della sua famiglia sono legati alla successione i soli destinatari di manifestazioni di culto e fa di ogni cittadino romano un sacerdote. Gli edifici intorno ai quali ruota la vita urbana sono i santuari di questa religione. Tutto ciò su un binario parallelo a quello del culto imperiale rivolto ai principi in qualità di divi.

What does it mean to be a leader? This collection of seventeen studies breaks new ground in our understanding of leadership in ancient Rome by re-evaluating the difference between those who began a political action and those who followed or reacted. In a significant change of approach, this volume shifts the focus from archetypal “leaders” to explore the potential for individuals of different ranks, social statuses, ages, and genders to seize initiative. In so doing, the contributors provide new insight into the ways in which the ability to initiate communication, invent solutions, and prompt others to act resonated in critical moments of Roman history.

This article discusses the instructive character present in the Forum of Augustus, one of the principal constructions undertaken by the Princeps Octavius Augustus at the end of the first century BC. From the studies about archaeological remains and written sources, we aim to analyze the main characteristics and particularities of this Forum and to what extent it constituted a place of memory, aiding in the perpetuation of a history of Rome recreated by Augustus and his support group, in which the Princeps stood out as the legitimate continuator of this history and the greatest example to be emulated; in such a way that the Forum of Augustus provided a true lesson in Roman history, materializing in stone this glorious past, of which Augustus was placed as a descendant and continuator.

The battle of Naulochus (36 B.C.) gave Octavian control over Sicily. In the following years the cities of the island were submitted to a political strategy characterized not only by an attitude of domination and conquest, but also by the search for forms of mediation and gradual inclusion of the inhabitants within the legal and institutional framework of the empire that Augustus was creating and that was defined in subsequent centuries.

In the dual roles of pater familias and pater patriae, Augustus paid particular attention to the cultural and moral education of the house’s youth; according to their destined roles, each one carefully planned their public career stages and paid special attention to their military training. Also the women, involved in complex matrimonial strategies, often played a leading role in the household. Augustus’ educational plan for educating the future political class was under direct control of the Emperor in a climate strictly anchored to the principles of mos maiorum, but intellectually refined, impregnated with Hellenism and patronized by illustrious men of culture.

Abstract
In Res Gestae 8, 5 Augustus boasts of having renewed «multa exempla maiorum» and of being himself responsible of «multarum rerum exempla». This could appear in line with Roman tradition about mos mairoum; actually, this statement, while giving moral excellence to Augustus (as the Greek RGDA declare more explicitly), can supports a monarchical rule. This is shown by comparison with Greek political thought (Isocr. Nic.; Pl. Leg. 709ss.; Arist. Pol. 1285a-b), with Cicero, with several texts of Julio-Claudian age.

Key-words: Res gestae; monarchy; example.


M. Capasso (a cura di), Quattro incontri sulla Cultura Classica (I Quaderni di ‘Atene e Roma’, 6), Lecce, Pensa Multimedia 2019 (il volume contiene gli Atti dell’VIII Congresso Nazionale dell’Associazione Italiana di Cultura Classica, Roma 18-19 ottobre 2014, “La pacificazione di Augusto fra realtà e propaganda”), pp. 103-148.

(engl. version below)
Unter den verschiedenen Formen, literarische Texte zu sammeln und zu erschließen, zählt deren Gruppierung zu einem Œuvre mit Sicherheit zu den gängigsten: Das Œuvre als Summe aller Werke eines bestimmten Autors wird dabei oft an scheinbar objektivierbaren Kriterien wie Werkbestand (Gesamtwerk) oder Autorbiographie (Spätwerk, Lebenswerk) gemessen und gleichsam als selbstverständlich betrachtet. Werkpolitik in der Antike fragt demgegenüber nach den Voraussetzungen (und ebenso nach den Auswirkungen) der Orientierung am Œuvre. Die lateinische Literatur der späten Republik und des augusteischen Prinzipats erweist sich für die Genese eines emphatischen Begriffes des auktorialen Corpus als formativ: Die Umwälzungen im literarischen Betrieb dieser Epoche, nicht zuletzt die Gründung öffentlicher Bibliotheken, bedingten bei Autoren, Kritikern und Lesern eine erhöhte Aufmerksamkeit für die Begründung von Werkzusammenhängen, welche die Idee des Œuvres nachhaltig prägte. In vier Studien zu Cicero, Vergil, Horaz und Ovid wird nachgezeichnet, wie sowohl innerhalb der literarischen Werke selbst wie in deren Rezeption bestimmte Vorstellungen von Lebens- und Gesamtwerk Gestalt annehmen konnten.



***
Of the various forms of collecting and cataloguing literary texts, classification as part of an authorial œuvre is one of the most common. The notion of the œuvre is often legitimised with regard to seemingly objective criteria, such as the extent or chronology of an author’s production, and its implications are thus downplayed and glossed over. By contrast, the present study explores the specific preconditions (and repercussions) of privileged status accorded to the idea of the authorial corpus. It argues that Late Republican and Augustan Latin literature is an especially momentous time in the history of the literary œuvre. The significant changes in literary culture that this period witnessed, not least the establishment of public libraries in Rome, led to an increasing awareness of and attention to the formation of textual corpora among literary practitioners, critics and readers, which has in turn had a formative influence on the idea of the authorial corpus. In four case studies, on Cicero, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, the book highlights the different ways in which the œuvre is envisaged and formed, both within the literary works themselves and in their reception.

Roma. En la residencia palatina, el soberano del más grande imperio occidental ni siquiera se permite pasear por sus jardines sin ser vigilado.  El poder genera ambición por ocuparlo, y no había mayor poder en la Antigüedad que el emperador. Las campañas fronterizas contra los germanos o los partos suponen un peligro adicional. Nunca sus enemigos extranjeros tendrán otra oportunidad como esa para tratar de acabar con su vida. En realidad, no existía un lugar totalmente seguro. Los pretorianos surgieron con una única y difícil misión, proteger su vida y la de su familia allí donde se encontraran.

Estrictamente escogidos entre los mejores soldados de todo el imperio. Entrenados diariamente para cumplir su cometido. Miles de soldados de elite estaban las órdenes de la casa imperial, acuartelados en el Castra Preatoria. Los pretorianos surgieron como unidad militar el 27 a.C. y se mantuvieron en su puesto hasta el 312 d.C., más de tres siglos de Historia donde compartirían funciones con los guardias germanos y los más expertos jinetes de la guardia real antes de que Constantino dictara su disolución. Ningún soberano fue tan audaz como para presentarse en combate sin tenerlos cerca. Si sus oponentes amenazaban con obtener la victoria ese era el momento para que actuaran mientras el resto de soldados contemplaban como conseguían cambiar el destino de la batalla hasta destruir a sus enemigos. Su preparación era la mejor, sus medios ilimitados y su capacidad no tenía igual. No existían soldados más diestros entre las tropas romanas.

Criticados por los autores clásicos, odiados por el pueblo, temidos por el Senado y envidiados por el resto del ejercito legionario, su actuación estuvo marcada por el heroísmo y la traición. Su poder creció hasta convertirse en la llave de la política Roma y no tardaron en aprovecharse de ello. Un relato épico sobre la guardia imperial romana, los guerreros seleccionados para proteger la integridad del Estado cuyo destino estaba en sus manos. Siempre preparados para neutralizar cualquier amenaza, quizá salvaron la vida a tantos emperadores como a los que se la arrebataron.

Arturo Sánchez, especialista en Historia Antigua y Militar ofrece la primera obra extensa sobre los pretorianos en nuestro idioma. Se mostrará su entrenamiento, tácticas, cuadros de mando y privilegios; su actuación en el frente y en la capital del imperio, no solo como soldados sino, incluso, como verdugos o espías. Se estudiará en detalle el campamento militar más importante de Roma, cuyos muros aun se levantan imponentes tras dos milenios. Todo ello tras una ardua y exhaustiva investigación para mostrar por fin la completa Historia de uno de los cuerpos militares de elite más importantes del mundo, aquellos que controlaron el devenir del imperio.

Abstract
This article focuses on some passages from the first part of the famous episode
of Lucretia ( Fasti 2,721-852). Ovid more than anyone exploits refined plot
devices to emphasize the virtue of the heroic Roman martyr of the  pudicitia.
In the beginning of the tale, the poet offers a sort of ‘epic’ prologue to the
tragic destiny of Lucretia, but ‘epic’ in Ovid’s way, since the episode does not
lack of clear interferences from both comedy (and maybe from mime?) and
erotic elegy. The mot  luditur in castris (v. 724) can be interpreted as a metaliterary
statement advising the readers that, after an epic approach expressed
through a distich, the tone will change. The  otium creates now the spaces for
certamina not marked by a war nature and concerning a poetry linked to the
erotic elegy.