Ausonius, Volume I: Books 1-17

by Ausonius, Hugh Gerard Evelyn-White

Overview

A master of the jeweled style.

Ausonius (Decimus Magnus), ca. AD 310–ca. 395, a doctor’s son, was born at Burdigala (Bordeaux). After a good education in grammar and rhetoric and a short period during which he was an advocate, he took to teaching rhetoric in a school that he began in the University of Bordeaux in 334. Among his students was Paulinus, who was afterwards Bishop of Nola; and he seems to have become some sort of Christian himself. Thirty years later Ausonius was called by Emperor Valentinian to be tutor to Gratian, who subsequently as emperor conferred on him honors including a consulship in 379. In 383, after Gratian’s murder, Ausonius retired to Bordeaux.

Ausonius’ surviving works, some with deep feeling, some composed it seems for fun, some didactic, include much poetry: poems about himself and family, notably “The Daily Round”; epitaphs on heroes in the Trojan War, memorials on Roman emperors, and epigrams on various subjects; poems about famous cities and about friends and colleagues. “The Moselle,” a description of that river, is among the most admired of his poems. There is also an address of thanks to Gratian for the consulship.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Ausonius is in two volumes; the second includes Eucharisticus (“Thanksgiving”) by Paulinus Pellaeus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674991071
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1919
Series:	Loeb Classical Library , #96
Edition description:	5th printing/1st pub.1919/frontispiece
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	771,888
Product dimensions:	4.25(w) x 6.38(h) x 1.00(d)
Language:	Latin

About the Author

Hugh Gerard Evelyn-White (1874–1924) was a prolific English archaeologist, classicist, and Egyptologist.

Table of Contents

A Cargo Of Wine On The Moselle

Introduction

Book I.—Prefatory Pieces

Book II.—The Daily Round Or The Doings Of A Whole Day

Book III.—Personal Poems

Book Iv.—Parentalia

Book V.—Poems Commemorating The Professors Of Bordeaux

Book Vi.—Epitaphs On The Heroes Who Took Part In The Trojan War

Book VII.—The Eclogues

Book VIII.—Cupid Crucified

Book IX.—Bissula

Book X.—The Moselle

Book XI.—The Order Of Famous Cities

Book XII.—The Technopaegnion

Book XIII.—The Masque Of The Seven Sages

Book XIV.—Ausonius On The Twelve Caesars Whose Lives Were Written By Suetonius Tranquillus

Book XV.—Conclusion Of The Book Of Annals

Book XVI.—A Riddle Of The Number Three

Book XVII. — A Nuptial Cento

Appendix