Between epigrams and epigraphs. the case of the Carthaginian poems in the Codex Salmasianus

The medieval manuscript tradition passes down a group of Late Antique Latin poems related to Carthage. Scholars have repeatedly associated them with Latin verse inscrip- tions. This matter is of primary interest to me since the ‘poetic landscape’ of this Roman city is at the very heart of my doctoral thesis. In this paper, my aim is firstly to contex- tualise and give an overview of these texts and secondly to offer a brief history of the studies aimed at understanding them and to elaborate on motivations for claiming their ‘epigraphic genuinity’. Lastly, I will present and discuss a selected group of these poems in order to put the previous argumentation to the test and to propose new insights.