Natura in breve: quando un tema vasto e complesso incontra i canoni epigrammatici

This article takes as its starting point a series of remarks on the volume F. Garambois-Vasquez, D. Vallat (eds.), Le lierre et la statue. La nature et son espace littéraire dans l’épigramme gréco-latine tardive, Lyon 2013. In particular it considers the inherent difficulty in defining nature as a theme, but also a number of further issues, such as the way in which Greek and Latin epigrammatists used and adapted nature, relative to the standards of the genre in which they worked. The conclusion is reached that nature is one of the prisms by which the genre of epigram may be reconsidered, from its earliest origins through the late antiquity.