Il panegirico a nozze: le laudes sponsorum nell’epitalamio latino tardoantico

Almost all Latin compositions belonging to the epithalamic genre emphasize the encomiasticvelement, which, already partly present in Catullus’ carmen 61, becomes fully developedvin Statius’ silua 1,2. From this perspective, the importance attributed to the so-called laudes sponsorum (“praises of the spouses”) is well explained in Greek rhetorical manuals, whose precepts could hardly be ignored by Latin epithalamists. An analysis of the encomiastic sections in Latin epithalamia from Claudian to Venantius Fortunatus confirms that the panegyrical and encomiastic patterns typical of the laudes sponsorum, with or without the revival of the fabula of Cupid and Venus devised by Statius, extend beyond Late Antiquity and continue to conform perfectly to the communicative strategies of poets who, often by commission, werevcalled upon to celebrate wedding occasions.