Abstract
Latin prose Panegyrics are a fourth-century product of Gallic rhetorical schools; they celebrate the emperor’s virtues by widely employing structures and topoi commonly associated with epideictic theory and practice. This paper explores the presence of hymnic features within the corpus of the Latin Panegyrics. The following passages are investigated: 1) the celebration of Diocletian and Maximian as Iovius and Herculius in Panegyrics 10(2).1–6 and 11(3).3; 2) the praise of the Tiber and the hymn to the supreme God in the Panegyric dedicated to Constantine 12(9). 18; 26; 3) the hymn to Greece in the Panegyric to Julian 3(11).8. The analysis shows how the panegyrists re-worked the laudatory material by adapting the style and topoi of hymns to gods to praise of the emperor.