La poesia in Petr. Sat. 135.8

Textual and exegetical notes on this poem. It is not fragmentary, and the order of the lines is not to be altered; it is closely connected to the preceding prose, and its primary models are Callimachus’ Hecale and Ovid’s tale of Philemon and Baucis (met. 8)

Le poesie in Petr. Sat. 55.6 e 93.2

Textual and exegetical notes on two Petronian poems, included in the Satyrica

Plutarch’s assessment of latin as a means of expression

Plutarch’s approach to Latin language and his ways to use it are influenced by the cultural standards of his age: they cannot be used as a witness of his own appreciation of Latin language and literature

Some ideas of Seneca’s on beauty

Remarks on Seneca’s views on beauty, in the light of both Stoic philosophy and contemporary cultural debate

Due concezioni del successo (Petr. Sat. 15.9, 18.6)

The two Phalaecean hendecasyllables at Petr. 15.9, probably to be assigned to Encolpius as narrator, are the only unquestionably incomplete poem in what remains of the Satyrica. They state, but do not develop, a widespread topos: the scant value of anything which is acquired with no strife, patience, and toil. The two elegiac couplets at 18.6 are uttered by Quartilla. She takes pride in her unhindered freedom (jocularly opposed to the self-proclaimed liberty of the Stoic sage). She wishes neither to suffer a slight to her dignity nor to give up her legal right. Only when full redress has been obtained is she willing to abstain from dealing the finishing blow to anyone who has offended her

La notion éthique de kalós / kalón en latin

Under the influence of Panaetius’ Stoic doctrine, Latin authors understand the Greek adjective καλός mostly in ethic sense. Cicero employs honestus as an equivalent; καλὸς κἀγαθός is rendered with vir bonus by Seneca

Vegetables and bald heads (Petr. Sat. 109.10.3-4).

In this passage of Petronius, horti tuber is a gourd

El destino del alma en el pensamiento de Cicerón (con una apostilla sobre las huellas ciceronianas en Dante)

In his philosophical works, Cicero rationally considers death to be either the end of man or the passage of the soul to a better state. Though he sentimentally fells closer to the latter idea. The Con-solatio takes a special position, in that it unconditionally accepts the immortality of the soul and eternal retribution, the alternative now concerning rewards and punishments. He seems to consider his daughter’s survival as depending from his efforts to this effect, and does not appear to expect a reunion with her after his own death. In the Divine Comedy Dante takes advantage of Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis to describe his view of the universe from the Heaven of Fixed Stars, and in his Convivio uses the De amicitia and specially the De senectute in order to prove the immortality of the soul. To do so, he presents as the absolute truth the arguments employed by Cicero to illustrate the positive side of the Socratic alternative