Where was the birthplace of Pomponio Leto

Abstract

In the wake of past attempts to identify Pomponio Leto's birthplace in different locations in Southern Italy a fresh review of the evidence is offered, including the lives by the Pomponian disciples Petrus Marsus, Michael Fernus and Marcus Antonius Sabellicus; Giovanni Pontano's and Pietro Ranzano's accounts; records by contemporary diarists; a heading in a manuscript; and sixteenth-century histories. It is suggested that Pomponio's own phrase ut Calaber noster Ennius was intended to give news of Ennius' origins thanks to the rediscovery of Silius' Punica. The sources for Pomponio's origins are then reassessed and a strong case is made for Teggiano in Campania.