Gli epigrammi di Augusto (e un epigramma di Marziale)

Ancient evidence relating to Octavian Augustus’ poetic production shows that the epigram was the emperor’s preferred genre, from which Martial (11,20) quotes three couplets – an obscene invective against Fulvia, Mark Antony’s wife – in defense of his own lascivi versus. The first part of this paper focuses on the technique and meaning of the quotation within Martial’s text: the poetic fragment, probably a complete epigram, is very effectively placed in a programmatic frame and connected to the immediate context of the book through a network of intertextual relations which make it fully functional to Martial’s poetics and the theme of the eleventh book. The second part of the paper analyzes Octavian’s verses, interpreted in the light of the historical sources and the abusive, often sexually connoted, propaganda that characterized the events relating to Perusinum bellum (autumn 41 BCE), of which this epigram offers a satirical and misogynist aition. Indeed, it shows a jealous, sexually aggressive but unappetizing Fulvia at the same time as it completely reverses the image, widespread at that time, of an effeminate and anti-heroic Octavian. The formal characteristics and content of these scoptic verses confirm the authenticity of Martial’s quotation, which represents the only surviving poem of Augustus, since the attribution to him of a short epigram discovered in 1880 does not seem to be tenable, although it has enjoyed considerable fortune. In fact, as the last part of this paper shows, both internal and external elements reveal that this epigram is a late variation on the theme of carpe diem interwoven with classical echoes and devoid of original ideas.