By the end of his life, Diogo Pires has published an extensive poetic compilation in
Venice entitled Cato Minor siue Disticha Moralia. In this study, we seek to analyse one of the
widest collections included in this work – Xenia ad Ianum Claudium Ciuem Rhacusanum –,
a large assemblage of distichs inspired by the eponymous book incorporated in Marcial’s
Epigrammata.
If the Xenia (and also the Apophoreta) by the Bilbilis poet offer invaluable insight into
Roman daily life in the 1st century, it is also undeniable that the book by the Évora poet provides
us with a vivid recollection of his personal world, revealing his inclinations and most remote
memories. Diogo Pires handles a broad range of themes in an ingenious and concise manner,
by resorting to plain elegiac distichs that illustrate the felicitous interweaving of two places and
times: Classical Antiquity and Renaissance.
