598

JUVENALIS

JUVENCUS

desiring them to give their opinions as to thepretensions of Aelurus (Labbe, iv. 890).

The statement of Basil of Seleucia that Juvenalfirst “began to celebrate the glorious andadorable salvation-bringing nativity of theLord ” ( Patrol. Graec. lxxxv. 469) must be inter-preted to mean that he separated the celebrationof the Nativity and the Epiphany, which, up tothat time, had been kept on the same day,January 6. We may gather from a letterprofessing to be addressed by the bishop ofJerusalem to the bishop of Rome, which, thoughfouod to be a late forgery by the gross confusionof names and dates (of. Diet. Ch. Antiq. Vol. I. p.859, Christmas), affords interesting evidence asto the original combination of those festivals,that this change was initiated by Juvenal inaccordance with the Western practice. Rasil ofSeleucia, being a contemporary of Juvenal, andassociated with him in his public acts, may beregarded as trustworthy evidence for the tact.According to Basil, Juvenal was the builder ofa basilica in honour of St. Stephen on the site ofhis martyrdom, for which the empress Eudociafurnished the funds.

The death of Juvenal may be most probablyplaced in 458 a.d. But there is no certainty asto either the commencement or the termination ofhis episcopate (cf. Tillemont, Note mr Juvenal ,xv. 867). He was succeeded by Anastasius. (Tille-mont, Menu Eccl. xv.; Ceillier, xiii. 247; Cave,Script. Eccl, i. 4T9 ; Oudin, i. 1270.) [E. V.]

JUVENALIS (3), bishop of Albano, signedthe second epistle of pope Agatho, sent in 680,to the council of Constantinople (Mansi, xi. 302;Ughelli, i. 250; Cappelletti, i. 658, 678; Hefele,§314). Cappelletti makes him seventh bishopof the see. [A. H. D. A.]

JUVENCUS, C. VETTIUS AQUILINUS,a Christian poet of the 4th century. Of hislife little is known; he was by birth a Spaniard,descended from a noble family; perhaps, ashis name would suggest, connected with Q. Vet-tius Aquilinus, consul 125 A.D. ; C. VettiusAquilinus, consul 162 a.d. ; Vettius Aquilinus,consul 286 a.d. (cf. Migne, Prolegg. ad in.). Hewas a presbyter in the Christian church, andcomposed his poem on the Gospels during thereign of peace established by Constantine (Hist.Ev. iv. 808 sqq.; S. Jerome, de Fir. Hi. c. 84;Ep. lxx. Chronica ad 332 A.D.).

These statements exhaust our certain know-ledge about the poet’s life. His works shew anacquaintance with the chief Latin poets, and itis perhaps this learning which earned for him t hetitle of “ Scholastics” which is applied to himby Alcuin. Perhaps it may mean more definitelya teacher of rhetoric, and he is called “ rhetor ”by Trithemius. Tamavus de Salazar in theMart ,rol. Hi.'p., and Peter de Natalibus say thathe was honoured as a confessor in the Spanishchurch on Sept. 12, blit there is no earlierauthority for the statement, and his mime is notfound in any Spanish breviary (v. Acta Sanc-torum ad Sept. 12).

Works. —(i.) Historia Erangelica. This is theonly e\tant work that is attributed to him onthe authority of St. Jerome. It is an hexameterpoem on our Lord’s life, based upon toe Gospels.The special interest of it lies in the fact that itis the first Christian epicj-the first etTort to tell

the Gospel story in a metrical form. From thepreface and the epilogue we may perhaps gatherthat it was the author’s aim, not only to gainimmortality for himself, but also to attractheathen readers by the form in which the storywas told. The chief merit of the poem lies in itsliteral adherence to the text. Commencing withthe events of St. Luke i. ii. (i. 1-258), the authorpasses to the account of St. Matthew (i. 18), amifollows that to the end, omitting only a few shortpassages (xiii. 44-53, xx. 29-34, xxi. 10-16,xxiii. 15-26, 29-36, xxiv. 28), rarely supple-menting his account from the other Synoptists(v. i. 355, ii. 43), but inserting large extractsfrom St. John, viz. i. 48-iv. (lib. ii. 99-348), v.19-47 (ii. 659 sqq.), xi. (iv. 306-404). Whilethe translation is very literal, it is saved frombaldness by a clear fluent style, which shews aknowledge of Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, &c., and gainsvariety and ornament by frequent periphrases,by alliteration, by the frequent use of compoundwords, many of which seem to be of originalformation, and by the revival of many archaicwords. At times the author adds explanatorycomment; cf. i. 408, 517 ; ii. 350, 579; iii. 241,265,475; iv. 571. The prosody is fluent andfairly correct, frequently lengthening short syl-lables in arsi or before double letters. Goodspecimens of the style will be found in the Pre-face: i. 626 sqq. (the Lord’s Prayer); ii. 25(the Stilling of the Storm), ii. 550 sqq.

The text used is a pre-vulgate version, followingthe African revision, cf. xx. 28, xxi. 31, andperhaps iii. 16.

The book seems to have been widely knownfrom the first. It is quoted with approval bySt. Jerome (ad Mt. ii. 11), by pope Gelasius,Venantius Fortunatus (de Vita S. Martini , 1),Isidore, Jonas Scotus, Bede, Alcuin, &c. (v.Migne, Prolegg. col. 42 sqq.), and it has beenedited no less than thirty times. The bestseparate editions are those of Reusch, Frankfort,1710; and Areval, Rome, 1792 (reprinted inMigne). Cf. also Gebser, de C. Vett. Aq. Vitaet Scriptis (lib. i. with introduction and notes),Jena, 1827. It will be found in Gallandi, iv.,Migne, xix., Ceillier, iii., and the other collec-tions. Cf. Kritische Beitrdge zur HistoriaEvangelica des Juvencus von Dr. J.'Huemer inWiener Studien , Wien, 1880, pp. 81-112.

(ii.) St. Jerome (ubi supra ) attributes to him“ nonnulla eodem metro ad sacramentorumordinem pertinentia,” but these are not extant.Trithemius mentions that he had seen two books“de Saeramenfcis.” He also refers to someelegiac poem which he had himself read, thoughhe does not give its name, and adds that Juvencuscomposed many works both in prose and poetry,which he had not seen.

(iii.) Historia Vet. Testamenti. This is onlyextant in parts, and its authorship is doubtful.For some time only 350 lines of the Liber inGenesim were known, and were attributed toCyprian or Tertullian. The whole of Genesiswas afterwards found attributed to Juvencus ina codex (? of 7th century) at Corvey,and publishedby Martene iD 1724. More recently Pitra haspublished 3266 additional lines from MSS. atCambridge and Laon, containing the whole ofExodus and Joshua, and fragments of the rest ofthe Pentateuch. The songs of Moses (Kxod. xv.;Deut. xxxii.) and the hymn in Numb. xxi. are in