Prudentius, Volume 1

by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens

Prudentius (Aurelius Prudentius Clemens) was born in 348 CE probably at Caesaraugusta (Saragossa) and lived mostly in northeastern Spain, but visited Rome between 400 and 405. His parents, presumably Christian, had him educated in literature and rhetoric. He became a barrister and at least once later on an administrator; he afterwards received some high honour from Emperor Theodosius. Prudentius was a strong Christian who admired the old pagan literature and art, especially the great Latin poets whose forms he used. He looked on the Roman achievement in history as a preparation for the coming of Christ and the triumph of a spiritual empire.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of the poems of Prudentius is in two volumes. Volume I presents: "Preface" ("Praefatio"); "The Daily Round" ("Liber Cathemerinon"); 12 literary and attractive hymns, parts of which have been included in the Breviary and in modern hymnals; "The Divinity of Christ" ("Apotheosis"), which maintains the Trinity and attacks those who denied the distinct personal being of Christ; "The Origin of Sin" ("Hamartigenia") attacking the separation of the 'strict' God of the Old Testament from the 'good' God revealed by Christ; "Fight for Mansoul" ("Psychomachia"), which describes the struggle between (Christian) Virtues and (Pagan) Vices; and the first book of "Against the Address of Symmachus" ("Contra Orationem Symmachi"), in which pagan gods are assailed.

The second volume contains the second book of "Against the Address of Symmachus," opposing a petition for the replacement of an altar and statue of Victory; "Crowns of Martyrdom" ("Peristephanon Liber"), 14 hymns to martyrs mostly of Spain; "Lines To Be Inscribed under Scenes from History" ("Tituli Historiarum"), 49 four-line stanzas which are inscriptions for scenes from the Bible depicted on the walls of a church; and an Epilogue.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Philosophy

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

A Roman Christian poet, born in the Roman province of Tarraconensis (now Northern Spain) in 348. He probably died in the Iberian Peninsula, as well, some time after 405, possibly around 413. The place of his birth is uncertain, but it may have been Caesaraugusta (Saragossa), Tarraco (Tarragona), or Calagurris (Calahorra).

Prudentius practised law with some success, and was twice provincial governor, perhaps in his native country, before the emperor Theodosius I summoned him to court. Towards the end of his life (possibly around 392) Prudentius retired from public life to become an ascetic, fasting until evening and abstaining entirely from animal food. Prudentius later collected the Christian poems written during this period and added a preface, which he himself dated 405.

The poetry of Prudentius is influenced by early Christian authors, such as Tertullian and St. Ambrose, as well as the Bible and the acts of the martyrs. His hymn Da, puer, plectrum (including "Corde natus ex parentis": "Of the Father's Love Begotten") and the hymn for Epiphany O sola magnarum urbium ("Earth Has Many a Noble City"), both from the Cathemerinon, are still in use today. The allegorical Psychomachia, however, is his most influential work and became the inspiration and wellspring of medieval allegorical literature.

Reviews

[Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prudentius will always be on my 'currently reading' list. Little appreciated in scholarship until the 90's (after Michael Robert's The Jeweled Style), Prudentius is an interesting poet who sits at a number of intersections: 'paganism' and Christianity, Empire and dissolution, the classical poetic style of Vergil and Horace with its quantitative meter and the stressed verse of the ecclesiastical style as of Ambrose. Prudentius, sometimes called the Christian Vergil or the Christian Pindar, is the best of the late antique Christian Latin poets.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the 'Psychomachia' (p274-343). This poem was very violent and gruesome, more than I had anticipated even having read reviews. Good poem though, and interesting take on Virtues and Vices.