Una preghiera al nobile perduto: nota a Juv. 8,26-30

Most modern editors of Juvenal print at 8,27 Richards’ conjecture alto in place of the manuscript reading alio and adopt debatable punctuation. However, alio is satisfactory in its meaning and, further, is indispensable for understanding Juvenal’s sophisticated irony in the face of contemporary aristocrats, noble only by birth and not by their virtues. Along with salve and seu in 8,26, quocumque alio de sanguine is an integral part of the parody of cletic formulae set in action by the poet. Through this parodic prayer, Juvenal invokes the ‘epiphany’ of the true noble, that is, the virtuous person.