Commentary Par VI 1

It has been suggested (Holl.2001.1, p 140) that this canto, the only one in the poem spoken by a single voice, is a sort of Dantean version of a miniaturized Aeneid, become, in this handling, a theologized history of Rome.  This first verse lends aid to such a view, as it rather dramatically opens this 'mini-epic' in medias res, as indeed did the poem that contains it (see C.Inf.I.1).  In this connection, it is perhaps worth noting that, according to some, the canto both begins and ends with a not-very-noticeable citation of the Aeneid.  The first words of Paradiso VI, 'Poscia che,' may reflect, according to Torraca (DDP Torraca.Par.VI.1-3), the first word of Virgil's third book, 'Postquam.'  Scevola Mariotti (Mari.1972.1), pp. 378-82, revisits Torraca's observation, showing how other elements in the first six verses of Aeneid III leave their mark on this passage in Dante, and concludes by noting that Aeneid III, like Paradiso VI, is spoken by a single voice (it doesn't hurt his case that it belongs to 'pater Aeneas') except for its final three lines.  And then, as Daniello (DDP Daniello.Par.VI.139-141) first and then Scartazzini (DDP Scartazzini.Par.VI.1) argued, the penultimate verse ([Par VI 141]) in this canto contains the phrase 'a frusto a frusto' (a word not used elsewhere in the poem), a calque on Aeneid I.212: 'Pars in frusta secant' (some cut it into pieces -- tr. H.R. Fairclough).  Mineo (Mine.1987.1), p. 144, seizes upon this evidence, citing Scartazzini (but not Daniello), to make the argument for a Virgilian beginning and ending to the canto.  Scartazzini finds himself here thinking of Dante's sad words about his own poverty-stricken exile (Conv.I.iii.3): 'Ah, if only it had pleased the Maker of the Universe that the cause of my apology had never existed, for then neither would others have sinned against me, nor would I have suffered punishment unjustly -- the punishment, I mean, of exile and poverty' (tr. R. Lansing).

The uniqueness of Justinian's canto, the only one in the poem dedicated to a single speaker and to the longest single speech in the poem, reflects the phenomenon addressed in great detail by Wilkins (Wilk.1961.1, p. 3): The third cantica has fewer speakers, but these speak at greater length than do most of those found in the first two canticles.