The founding father
Publius Optatianus Porphyrius
Of Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius we ignore both the date of birth and that of death. All we know is that he was praefectus in Rome in 329 and in 333 A.D. and that he appears to have been a Christian. Sent into exile by the Emperor Costantine for motives unknown to us, in order to regain the emperor’s favour he wrote his “Panegyric to the Emperor”. Consisting in thirty one poems, twenty of which composed in a novel kind of figurative poetry, the versus intexti: poems II - II - III - V- VI - VII - VIII - IX -X - XI -XII - XIII - XIV - XVI - XVIII - XIX - XXI - XXII - XXIII - XXIV - XXXI.
?. Cambridge companions to literature Cambridge University Press,, Cambridge :, (2005.)Electronic reproduction. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 2006..
M. Bergamin. Per verba / Fondazione Ezio Franceschini--22 SISMEL edizioni del Galluzzo, Tavarnuzze (Firenze), (2005)Aenigmata Symposii a cura di Manuela Bergamin. 263 p..