| Abstract: | This reading is based on the assumption that the first five lines deal with the following three members of a Veronese family: (I) the younger Balbus (nato 5 identified by viro 1 and Caecilius 9), (II) his father, the older Balbus (parenti at 1 and senex at 4), and (III) the wife of Balbus the younger seen as the main target of the poem (the marita of 6 and, paradoxically, the virgo of 19); the assumption is that virgo is a reference to the sexual incapacity of a former husband from her time in Brixia. Badian's conjecture pacta (6) is defended, and two conjectures are proposed: incestus for illius (23) and quaerendu’ vir unde (27). |
