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Introduction
zChange,andzcontinuity,:thesetwowords,howeverantonymic,areusedrepetitivelyand
ofensimultaneouslyinstudiesdescribingtheculturalphenomenonoflateantiquity.In-
deed,thecultureofSpätantike,inparticulartheliteraryone,canhardlybedefinedother
thanzpost-classical,
,whichmeans,ontheonehand,aculture(naturallyenough)based
ontheclassicaltradition,developinginandthroughadialoguewiththatuniqueheritage,
butontheotherhand,acultureinmanyaspectssimplydiferentfromthatofclassical
antiquity.Tisdiference–asstudentsoflateantiqueaestheticsandpoeticsemphasize
withimitablepersistence1–cannotbereducedtothemerequestionofquality.
Oneofmorerelevant,ifnotthemostrelevant,featuresoflateantiquepoeticsisaten-
dencytomixvariousgenresandstyles,2tocreateworksthatarehardlyinterpretablein
zold,generictermsor,atleast,towidenthesemanticsofacertainformbyaddingnew,
untypical(ostentatiouslyuntypicalattimes)elementsorcharacteristics.Tistendency
actuallydoesnotpointtoanythingelsebutthefactthatlateantiquepoetry–notlessthan
GreekHellenisticorLatinneotericone,whichwassimilarlyexperimentalandmanner-
istic–iscomposedbyandforconnoisseursforwhomwritingandreadingis,andshould
be,anintellectualadventure,asubtleplaywithmostvariedliterarycodesandtropes.
Atthesametime,however,itshouldnotbearguedthatlateantiquityisanepoch
alreadywhollyblindorindiferenttothenotionofaliterarygenre,oranepochinwhich
ztraditional,formsareforgottenorlaidaside.Atellingexample,inLatinwritings,maybe
theepithalamium,agenrepracticedbytheRomanpoetssinceatleastCatullusandthe
Neotericsbutapparentlyreachingitszenith(only?)inSpätantike.3Interestinglyenough,
inLateLatinpoetry,andwhatismore,especiallytheonecomposedalreadyinaperiod
onceconsideredtheoutsetofthezDarkAges,andnowadaysredefinedasapartofthe
1Seeespecially–Iquoteexempligratia–the(alreadycanonical)bookbyRoberts1989a,who
himselfreferredinthefirstplacetoMarrou,sexperienceinstudyingtherelationshipbetweenclas-
sicalandlateantiqueaesthetics.Actually,Robertsineachofhisstudiesonlateantiqueliterature
(therefore,Ispeakaboveof“imitablepersistence”)stressestheunique,diferentcharacterofits
poetics,alwaysaddingsomeinspiringobservations.
2Seeespecially–againIquoteexempligratia–Fontaine1977,1980,1981,1998(auseful
selectionofFontaine,smajorworksinItalian).
3AsRoberts(1989b:321)notices,ofseventeenextantLatinverseepithalamia,thirteenareby
poetsoflateantiquity.ItisusuallyacknowledgedthatLatinlateantiqueepithalamiaaremodeled
onStatius,sSilv.1.2(see,apartfromRoberts,Pavlovskis1965;Stehliková1990),but,inpointof
fact,incomparativestudiesonlateantiqueLatinepithalamiaitisimportanttoemphasizepro-
founddiferencesinform,content,poeticimagery,andevenmetricsbetweensingletexts.Te
systematizationsproposedbyHorstmann2004,theauthorofarecentmonographonthegenre,
arevaluablehere.
