La città malata. Continuità e discontinuità di un tópos classico nella legislazione tardoantica

The paper aims to show the continuity and discontinuity of the rhe- torical tópos of disease in reference to the political and social body using a historical-legal perspective. The metaphor of disease (νόσος / morbus) and plague (λοιμός / pestis-pestilentia) is widespread in Greek and Latin literature and linked to the events of the political body – presented in an organicist vision – in two ways: (1) στάσις and civil discord are metaphorically or analogically equated with disease and/or plague; (2) the cause of naturalistic epidemics is recog- nized in divine punishment (for ὕβρις or for the violation of pax deorum). In Late Antiquity the use of the metaphor is rare to in- dicate civil conflicts, but pervasive in the writings of ecclesiastical authors and polemicists against Jews and heretics. Late imperial constitutions adopt this language extensively. The paper aims: to systematize the pertinent linguistic and rhetorical data; to trace the historical development of the use of metaphor, clarifying its value in juridical rhetoric and legislative drafting; to show how the study of this tópos represents a key to appreciate some transformations of late imperial criminal law.