125The Epic Temptations of Marcellus Sidetes

This paper discusses Marcellus Sidetes’ poetical remains: a fragment on the healing properties of fish ( GDRK LXIII), two hexameter poems for Annia Regilla ( IGUR 1155A–B), and an epitaph in nine hexameters ( AP 7.158) probably written by Marcellus himself. All these texts feature markedly epic language and style. This is best understood as a kind of reaction against the pervasiveness of rhetorical prose in the 2 nd c. AD, even in literary genres or sub-genres traditionally associated with verse: Marcellus was perhaps reasserting poetry’s right to deal with a vast number of subjects, showing that traditional epic diction was perfectly suitable for medical, laudatory, and funerary poetry as well.