Sul significato di circumlitio: nota a Seneca, epist. 86, 6, Plinio, nat. 35, 133 e Quint. 8, 5, 26

The term circumlitio appears in Latin only three times: 1. in Plin. nat. 24, 40, where the sense is the medical one of ‘spreading an ointment around’ the mouth, consistent with the functions of the verb lin(i)o; 2. in nat. 35, 133; 3. in Sen. epist. 86, 6, where the context (respectively the marble statues of Praxiteles and the cladding of the thermal buildings) is artistic and there is no consensus among scholars on the exact significance of these references. This paper considers ex novo not only these passages, but the use of the verb circumlin(i)o, by making linguistic and stylistic analysis in connection with the antiquarian interpretations of circumlitio from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth century and with the most recent archaeological findings. The outcome shows that circumlitio was not a technical term related to a specific procedure, but it generally indicated the ‘spreading over all around’ of the colour on various aesthetically significant surfaces, such as some details of the statues, to give them a colourful emphasis and not a protective lacquer (ganosis, Vitr. 7, 9, 4), or such as marble claddings, to add either veins or other decorative elements (epist. 86, 6). This demonstrates the incorrect interpretation of circumlitio in Seneca as ‘mosaic’, derived from Iustus Lipsius and taken up by the majority of modern translators. It is also here proposed the new reading circum litum in Quint. 8, 5, 26 in the sense of ‘making space around’, or ‘deleting all around by overlapping (colour)’.