"Deliberat Diomedes, an Latinis auxilium petentibus ferat”: Diomede e l’ambasceria dei Latini tra esegesi, retorica e prassi scolastiche

The Virgilian episode of Venulus’ embassy to Diomedes (Aen. 8.9-17; 11.225-295) is referred to in the rhetorical works of Sulpicius Victor (rhet. 47 [342, 27-31 H.]), who interprets it as a suasoria based on the issue of qualitas negotialis legalis (“Deliberat Diomedes, an Latinis auxilium petentibus ferat”), and of Emporius (rhet. 562, 26-30 H.), who uses it to illustrate a species of ethopoeia called pragmatica. The similarities with the interpretations offered by the late-antique Virgilian interpreters (Servius, Servius Auctus and Tiberius Claudius Donatus), who likewise approach this episode from a rhetorical point of view, allow us to glimpse the constant and reciprocal interchange that took place among different aspects and levels of ancient teaching (the enarratio poetarum at the school of the grammaticus; the teaching of rhetorical theory; the rhetorical exercises: progymnasmata, suasoriae and controversiae), showing at the same time the centrality that Virgil held in the Latin schools.