Epigramma, oscenità e censura (una lettura di Marziale, 1.35)

In 1.35 Martial deals with the crucial theme of the relationship between epigram and obscenity, relating to Catullus (c. 16), who is from his first book mentioned by the epigrammatist as his main model. The epigram’s addressee, Cornelius, who complains about the impossibility to read at school Martial’s poems, could be a teacher. This hypothesis would allow to see in the original metaphor of the libelli’s castration a real censorship’s intervention, suggested or already carried out, like the one witnessed by the carolingian manuscripts of the poet.1n