The Analysis of Sexual Terms Used in Adversus Nationes by Arnobius

The aim of this article is to present the ways in which Arnobius speaks of the body and its sexuality, in particularhis linguistic strategies employed to articulate sexual terms. It analyses those fragments of AdversusNationes where the Rhetorician of Sicca Veneria does not shy away from sexual terms describing various bodyparts, yet is far from being vulgar or literal. Arnobius’s apologia constitutes a rich source of lexical materialcovering human anatomy and obscene behaviours. It is also an example of how to observe the rules of aestheticsin Late Antique literature