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This article deals with the rhetorical and literary wealth of Ausonius' Protrepticus ad nepotem, and particularly with the poet's irony and humor. Irony is an indispensable key to the correct interpretation of a text that was often misunderstood and whose actual addressee is the Gallo-Roman aristocracy. Hie aim of this exhortation is promoting a culture and a political vision in which classics play an essential role. Ausonius brings into play all his literary abilities to make his poem into a poetical celebration. The rhetorician of Bordeaux conveys a very serious message in a funny and charming way, in perfect consonance with the culture and the expectations of his readers: this is the power of persuasion of late Antiquity literature.

The famous poem which seals the fourth book of Ovid's Tristia is a piece on the poet's vocation and sacred character, in which Ovid wants to make an understanding friend of his reader, thanks to whom he will achieve immortality. When the humanist and reformer Johannes Fabricius Montanus is writing his verse autobiography, he has the poem of his ancient predecessor clearly in mind : the borrowings and literary echoes are numerous. The poem's theme, as that of its model, is the poet's vocation, which plays an essential role in the life of our humanist. Although the problematic is the same, the answers are different. Montanus uses the ancient model in a subtle way to support new thoughts, often opposed to Ovid's. In giving the reader the example of his life, Montanus's aim is to show the superiority of Christian humanist thought which resolves the existential problems shared with the Roman poet. Montanus' autobiography is undoubtedly an example of a successful partial assimilation of an ancient model. - This article is concluded with a continuous French prose translation of Montanus's verse autobiography.