PRATICHE DI DISCREDITO DALLA STORIOGRAFIA PAGANA DEL IV SECOLO D.C.: MULIEBRITAS VS. VIRILITAS NELLE RAPRESENTAZIONI DI POTERE

This study analyzes the use and sense of the terms muliebris and muliebriter in late antique historiography, with particular attention to Ammianus Marcellinus and the Historia Augusta. The investigation shows how these terms, traditionally associated with the feminine world, are employed to stigmatize male figures deemed unworthy of power, through a rhetorical strategy aimed at questioning their virilitas and political legitimacy. Ammianus, in particular, links such negative connotations to eunuchs, senators, and barbarian peoples; the Historia Augusta, though with a more ambiguous tone, develops similar judgments about emperors such as Hadrian, Elagabalus, and Commodus. The language of muliebritas thus becomes a narrative tool for constructing moral and political delegitimization, reflecting deep ideological tensions in the representation of imperial power in the fourth century.