Ovid, ekphrasis, and storytelling in Ausonius’ epigrammatic discourse

The aim of my paper is to identify, on the basis of a short but significant ekphrastic epigram of the Ausonian collection of Epigrammata—that is, Epigr. 57 Green—in which the mythical figure of Niobe is the protagonist, some of the essential compositional techniques and characteristic poetic features of this late antique poet. In particular, I would like to demonstrate how this case-study of Ovidian literary influence constitutes a typical exemplum of the way in which Ausonius exploits and changes a long literary tradition with which he was familiar, so as to obtain a ‘new context’, through which the poet can display his literary skill, his linguistic knowledge and his ability to ‘reconfigure’ the mythological plot and to give the heroine a new meaning that is connected to the literary repertory of the educated readers