L’epitaffio di Senario. Edizione, traduzione e commento dell’epigrafe di un ambasciatore di Teodorico

The epitaph of Senarius is attested for the first time in Pierre Pithou’s Epigrammata et poematia vetera. A careful examination of the text and Pithou’s volume indicates that the source used by the French scholar was a manuscript or an epigraphic anthology. The inscription probably came from northern Italy, perhaps from Ravenna. The epitaph can be attributed to a learned man who was educated in sixth-century Italy. It was composed not by Senarius, but by a poet who knew Theoderic’s political communication well, possibly Arator. Senarius, who was most likely born in 470 or shortly afterwards, died in the last years of Theoderic’s reign or during the regency of Amalasuintha. The article includes the critical edition of the epitaph, an Italian translation and a detailed commentary.