Un'idea di Marziale : a proposito di un recente commento al V libro degli epigrammi

The article discusses some aspects of the fifth book of Martial's epigrams, starting from the new commentary by A Canobbio (Naples 2011). The structure of the book's prefatory section (epigr. 1-20) is particularly interesting because it creates a complex strategy of communication to the audience princepy, patrons, anonymous lector) and of self-fashioning of the author. The intertextual relationship with poetic authorities of the Augustan age, especially Horace and Ovid, is strongly present here while in the corpus of the book the dialogue with Catullus and the theater of Plautus becomes more evident - As Canobbio shows in relation to the 'cycle' of the subsellia. The fifth book proves to be a complex poetic text which enacts a multi-level dialogue with the Roman public and with the Latin literary tradition.