Il realismo dell’arte e il paradosso del retore muto

This paper analyses a group of anonymous skoptic epigrams on rhetoricians, AP 11.145, 11.149, 11.151, APl 318, illustrating how cleverly they manipulate the language and conventions of ekphrastic epigram for satiric purposes. It suggests that AP 11.149, APl 318 and AP 11.151 invite a linear reading, and were probably written by the same author; a possible chronological framework for the poems is also provided. An appendix deals with Palladas APl 317, which has usually been connected with the series, but could be of a different nature.