Francesco Lubian: Between epic (re-)narration and typological exegesis: the role of Moses in Prudentius' Dittochaeon

My paper aims at investigating the role played by Moses in Prudentius' Dittochaeon, composed by 48 hexametric tetrastichs, 24 dedicated to Old- and 24 to New Testament scenes, the most notable example of tituli historiarum collection from the Latin Late Antiquity. Moses, by far the most cited Old Testament character in all Prudentius' oeuvre, is the protagonist of seven tetrastichs (VIII-XIV), which tellingly correspond to the seven epigrams of the the second part of the poem (XXXII-XXXVIII) dedicated to Christ's miracles: such structural parallelism emphasises the typological connotation of the patriarch and of his deeds, which anticipate episodes from the the time sub gratia by means of numerous Christological, staurological, and sacramental typologies, whose exegetical background will be carefully reconstructed. Decisive is also Prudentius' subversion of the order of Moses' deeds in the books of Exodus and Numbers:far from depending from the poet's (doubtful) iconographic source, such changes aims at pointing out the akolouthia of the order of Moses' deeds, as in contemporary exegesis. The analysis will also highlight how Prudentius' profound rearranging of the Exodus narrative gives life to a sort of miniaturised biblical epos: while brevity and vividness surely represent the main features of the Dittochaeon's "epigrammatic rewriting" of the Scripture, in the case of Moses the reuse of Vergilian tesserae, his connotation as an epic dux, and the reorganisation of the Exodusnarrative itself contribute to the prophet's heroic modelisation, leading to the transfiguration of Moses into a (Christianised) epic hero.