The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. This book examines the twelve mythological and secular examples, which probably date from c.200-c.530. While verbal games, the centos deserve to be taken seriously for what they disclose about Virgil's reception, late-antique literary culture, and other important historical and theoretical topics in literary criticism. As radically intertextual works, the centos are particularly valuable sites for ... More

The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. This book examines the twelve mythological and secular examples, which probably date from c.200-c.530. While verbal games, the centos deserve to be taken seriously for what they disclose about Virgil's reception, late-antique literary culture, and other important historical and theoretical topics in literary criticism. As radically intertextual works, the centos are particularly valuable sites for investigating topics in allusion studies: when can and should audiences read texts allusively? What is the role of the author and the reader in creating allusions? How does one determine the functions of allusions? This book explores these and other questions, and in the process comes into dialogue with major critical issues.