The cento, that belongs to the group of twelve Virgilian centos from the Codex Salmasianus,
follows the Ausonian rules (one hexameter is made up of two different vergilian hemistichs,
mainly derived from Eneid) in twenty-seven verses (the total is thirty-four verses); the other
seven entirely taken from the model without modifications. The cento can be divided into three
parts: Jupiter’s passion (vv. 1-5), the different stages of his courtship of Europe (6-29), and the
abduction of the maiden (27-34). In the first section we can detecte the presence of a refined
intertextual crossing whose auctoritates are Virgil, for the form, and Ovid, for the matter of the
story. When the final context, i.e. the context of the cento, is less suitable than the context the
model, the literary analysis reveals an analogical proximity of myths. So it seems to be in the
cento a sort of twisted mythological line, which links Europe, Io and Pasifae. In Moscus’ Europe
such a ‘familiar continuity’ is confirmed by the characteristic ‘taurofilia’’ in Cretan lineage. Our
cento gives the opportunity of further consideration on the myth of Europe in the Vandalic Africa
of V-VI c. AD. Since two other compositions of codex Salmasianus, AL 143-144 R2, discuss the
same subject and the first of them ends with the image of Jupiter 'marauder', which is present also
at v. 34 of our cento (taken from Aen. 7,362), it seems possible to assume that there were more
strict relationships between the various poems from the Anthologia than usually assumed by
scholarship.
