Giovanni Pascoli (1855–1912): Reditus Augusti, an Horatian mime

Giovanni Pascoli (1855–1912) was one of the greatest Italian poets between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. He was also a professor of Latin at the Universities of Messina, Pisa and Bologna: he dedicated critical works to Horace, poetic translations and some Latin poems, which earned him thirteen gold medals at the Certamen Hoeufftianum in Amsterdam. This contribution aims to present his Latin poem Reditus Augusti (1897), a meta-literary mime that envisions the occasion when Horace, after witnessing the return procession of Augustus from Spain, composed Ode 3.14. the essay contains an introduction to Reditus Augusti, the Latin text, the first English translation of the poem, and a careful commentary on literary and stylistic aspects.