Sam's Thoughts on Formisano

I kept Formisano's arguments in mind throughout today's reading. While I wasn't completely persuaded, I did find traces of his ideas about the ironic presence (in memory) of absent (in person) Rome in Rutilius' continued invocation of his friends with important offices in the city itself. The extended digression on the Etruscans was also interesting in this regard. However, I remain skeptical, probably due to my own ignorance of the relevant literature, of how much Formisano's ideas about allegory were actually used in poetic composition (as opposed to interpretation) in late antiquity. He repeatedly cites Lambert's Homer the Theologian; while my acquaintance with it and similar works is limited, my understanding is that allegoreis was employed in the appropriation of existing texts than in the creation of new ones. Again, I ultimately defer to Formisano's greater proficiency in the thought of the period; but his characterization of it felt in part like a cheap justification of what are ultimately pretty standard post-structuralist tropes.