Meteorismo in versi (Su Anthologia Vossiana 64 Zurli = fr. 39 Bucheler = 35 Muller)

Abstract: The reading ventris, which is a Riese’s correction in v. 1 of poem 64 of the Anthologia Vossiana, is evaluated over the trivializing handwritten reading ventis. Scaliger’s correction venis is defended, demon- strating that it draws on a medical term introduced in Rome by Asclepiades of Bithynia, a physician known to Lucretius, and considered by the methodical school of medicine. The noun venae also draws on Seneca’s geophysical language and recalls the comparison between meteorism and the movement of air in under- ground canals used in the Naturales Quaestiones and in an anecdote from the Vita Lucani.