A Particular Aspect of Combinatory Technique in the Letters of Simmachus: Between Epistolary <i>clichés</i> and Topica Valetudinaria

The article analyses seven letters of Simmachus (Epist. 3.86, 4.44, 7.43 and 71, 8.6, 18 and 19) in which the theme of health is combined with topoi of the epistolary genre such as the description of the pleasures of country life, the gaudium that descends from correspondence, the promise of a meeting, the exchange of letters as reciprocal munus .