Elementi protrettici nel finale del IV libro degli Astronomica di Manilio

The epilogue of the iv book of the Manilius’ Astronomica is a long exhortation to the astronomical studies. The poet, at the end of a hard didactic exposition, declares the ways through which the student can know the sky and reaffirms the philosophical foundations of the poem. The first part of this paper aims to show some elements which Manilius has borrowed from protreptic literature, in particular the coincidence between stargazing and theoretical life, that reveals many features of the author’s didactic project. The second part of the paper, through the analysis of the metaphor of the “mind’s eye” in Manilius, Ovid (Met. xv 62-64, Fast. i 295-310) and Aetna-poem (vv. 219-281), attempts to outline characteristic elements of the didactic poetry in the late Augustan and early Imperial period.