Soteriologia cristiana e categorie filosofiche nella rappresentazione dell'aldilà in Ausonio: Epigr. Bob. 8 e 54 Sp.

This article examines the varietas of afterlife representations in Ausonius’ opuscula, focusing on the tension between classical poetic continuity and the assimilation of Christian language. While Ausonius at times articulates the post-mortem condition through inherited imagery – ranging from the metaphor of unending sleep to spatial and cosmographic models shaped by epic and philosophical tradition – these motifs ultimately serve as a backdrop to his most innovative solutions. The core of the analysis concentrates on two epigrams (epigr. 8 and 54), in which death is no longer conceived as access to a determinate otherworldly space, but is redefined through non-localizing categories: commutatio saeculi and abitus. Far from being merely euphemistic or doctrinal formulations, these expressions articulate an understanding of death as ontological passage rather than spatial displacement. Their semantic density emerges from a complex intertextual stratification, in which comic antecedents (Terence) and Augustine) intersect. The article argues, however, that the ultimate conceptual matrix of these formulations is philosophical. Both commutatio and abitus can be traced back to the Platonic definition of death in apol. 40C, 40E e 41A, where it is described as μεταβολή / μετοίκησις and ἀποδημία: a transformation or departure of the soul rather than a transition toward a fixed topography.