CASES OF POISONING IN GREEK AND ROMAN DECLAMATION

In this article the declamatory themes, both Greek and Latin, concerning cases of poisoning are listed and classified. The classification is based on narratological criteria: themes are considered as narrative microtexts and categorized according to the characters recurring in such micro - stories. Also relevant for classification are some morphological structures (“morphemes”), which are repeated and combined in both Greek and Latin declamatory themes. Bilingual themes show a common imagery, also shared by the most “realistic” genres of literary tradition (such as the novel and historiography): so declamatory themes can be seen as embryonic narrative texts, whose accomplished form is often documented within Imperial - age literature. Regarding “monolingual” themes (solely documented in either of the two languages), the relationship with the law shows some difference: on the Latin side, where a direct comparison with juridical texts is possible, remarkable similarities appear between declamatory themes and legal cases. Also juridical texts can be considered a micro-narrative form, since they share with declamatory themes not only logical schemes, but also narrative structure.