Further Thoughts on CIL IV, 5296 – CLE 950: Textual Problems, Structure, and Gender Issues

As the author has argued in a previous paper, CIL IV, 5296 is only the rather clumsy and partial transcription of a poem that has not been composed by the graffito writer himself; its author – very likely a woman – was working with a rather good knowledge of the Latin literary culture. Expanding on these conclusions, this study analyzes some textual and prosodic problems; provides some insight on the compositional technique and structure of the short poem; highlights the interest but also the uncertainties of the gender issues raised by the text.