Delenifica facundia. Il potere ammaliatore della parola

In the second half of the 4th century AD, Fronto is read as a source of archaic and archaizing words and expressions. Even when these words are attested in renown and widely read authors like Plautus, their reception by Fronto deeply impacts the way they are understood and used by later authors. A meaningful example in this respect is represented by the evolution in the use of the term delenificus. Although in Plautus the delenimentum has a negative connotation, meaning deception, in Fronto the expression delenifica verba is absolutely positive. In this sense, in the wake of Fronto, Ausonius and Symmachus define their own literary practice as the domain of the delenifica facundia, that is of an enchanting, though evanescent, eloquence.