What is it about?
My work looks at how the speeches in the Psychomachia (Latin poem written at the beginning of the fifth century C.E.) echo or borrow from speeches found in other Latin epic poems. I collected speeches that contain either threats or calls to action and examined how parts of these speeches are reused in the Psychomachia.
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Why is it important?
I argue that reused phrases, or “extra voices”, give the duels of the Psychomachia a sense of deja vu, re-enacting a never-ending struggle that has already been played out in previous epic stories. This re-use of other texts makes the fight between Virtues and Vices, feel timeless, an echo chamber in which the same battles are retold in different forms.
Perspectives
My research in this topic was made possible thanks to the use of DICES database, an international research project jointly founded by the Universities of Mount Allison, Rostock and Amsterdam, which catalogues the use of direct speeches allowing new perspectives on narratology, emotions and psychology within the ancient epic canon.
Dr. Roberto Valente Chiappiniello
Downside School
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Desine grande loqui: Characters and Speeches in the Psychomachia of Prudentius, December 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004750227_009.
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