Scaenica ostentatio: percorsi di teatralità tragica nelle Declamationes minores dello Pseudo-Quintiliano

The present paper is connected to the most recent studies about ancient declamation and it focuses on Pseudo-Quintilian’s Declamationes minores. This work is a collection of exercises written about the typical motives of rhetorical schools. It is important because it clarifies the way the Roman school operated in the first century of the Empire. In fact, this dissertation is part of a research project which aims to provide the first Italian translation and a new commentary in order to revise Winterbottom’s (1984). In the last thirty years there has been a considerable development of declamation studies, therefore it seemed necessary to work on a new textual commentary and revision that takes into account recent material which integrates, enlarges and deepens the interpretative framework. Another aim of this work is finding the literary references that can be found in the Minores with specific attention to those originated from comedy and, above all, tragedy. We made a selection of the controversiae on a thematic basis in order to investigate the relationship between rhetoric and drama. Consequently, this paper has been divided into two parts: the first deals with three themes that, due to their importance, seemed particularly suitable for the exemplification of the close relationship that links the Minores to dramatic literature, i.e. the stock character of the stepmother, the theme of the burial of the dead and the theme of madness. In the second part there is the translation and commentary of the texts of 21 Minores, chosen on the basis of their links with drama.