Parallel readings of Greek and Roman works as testified by the Roman authors

The aim of the present article is to analyze Roman opinions on profits that can be drawn from parallel readings of Greek and Roman works composed in the same generic convention in a situation in which it was a Greek text to provide major source of inspiration for a Roman autor. The extant literary evidence proves the exemplary influence of Greek literature on its Roman counterpart throughout the centuries of its development, shows the ways of ideological exploitation of a Latin and a Greek text (see M. T. Cicero), and illustrates professional aesthetic-literary judgment of the two works as well as cultural emulation between Greeks and Romans (see A. Gellius). Finally, it emphasizes the very joy that can be taken from reading poetry and from belonging to the elitist club of the readers of the two literatures, Greek and Latin (see Sidonius Apollinaris)