Sulla datazione di Giulio Vittore

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This paper addresses from a lexicographical point of view the question of the uncertain chronology of Iulius Victor’s Ars rhetorica. The first part of the article discusses the (few) external and internal data on which previous scholars have based the approximate dating of the work to the 4th century. In the second part of the paper an overall analysis of Iulius Victor’s vocabulary reveals striking similarities with the archaiz- ing vocabulary of writers from 5th-century Gallia, such as Sidonius Apollinaris and Clau- dianus Mamertus, thus leading to the hypothesis that Iulius Victor belonged to the same geographical and chronological context. The third and final section of the article develops further this hypothesis, investigating the connections between the relative chronology of Iulius Victor’s Ars rhetorica and that of Rufinus’ De numeris and Priscian’s De metris Terentii.