"Genitalium membrorum (...) foeditates" l'analisi dei termini sessuali ricorrenti nell' Adversus Nationes di Arnobio

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the ways in which Arnobius speaks of the body and its sexuality, in particular his linguistic strategies employed to articulate sexual terms. It analyses those fragments of Adversus Nationes where the Rhetorician of Sicca Veneria does not shy away from sexual terms describing various body parts, yet is far from being vulgar or literal. Arnobius’s apologia constitutes a rich source of lexical material covering human anatomy and obscene behaviours. It is also an example of how to observe the rules of aesthetics in Late Antique literature.