PRUDENTIUS

PRUDEXTIUS

501

Smnrnachwn, and in A.D. 405 published an editionof his poems, with a preface that shews thatall his extant works, except the Dittochaeon, andperhaps the Psychomachia , were then written.Of his later life or of his death nothing is known.

His character, as it appears from his writings,is very lovable. He is a loyal Roman, proud ofthe empire, for he sees in its past conquests and itscapacity for government a preparation for thekingdom of Christ, and he looks forward togreater conquests under the banner of the Cross(Perist. ii. 1-35, 413-484, x. passim; c. Symm . i.415-505; ii- 577-771). He has a great fondnessfor art, wishing to keep even Pagan statues ifregarded only as ornaments (c. Symm. i. 505).

As a Christian he has an intellectual horror ofheresy and heretics, though with a personal ten-derness for the latter (c. Symm . ii. Pref.). Heis loyal to all church customs and ordinances,and withal has a strong appreciation of spiritualtruth. This is seen in his lofty conception ofthe Nature of God ( Oath . iv. 7-15; Apoth.84-90 ; Mam. 27 sq.; c. Symm. i. 325 ; Peristeph.x. 310), of the True Temple ( Cath . iv. 16-21 ; c.Symm. ii. 249; Apoth. 516), the True Worship(Perist. x. 341), the True Fast (Cath. vi. 201-220), the True Nobility of birth ( Perist. x. 123),the True Reward (c. Symm. ii. 750), the TrueRiches ( Perist. ii. 203). He shews a pious ten-derness of spirit (cf. Apoth. 393), kissing thesacred books (ib. 598), and the altar ( Perist . ix.100), and a deep personal humility which doesnot venture to contend with Symmachus (i. 609) ;which offers his verses to Christ, though theyare but the “ earthen vessel ” ( Epilogus 29) of a“rustic poet” (Perist. ii. 574; x. 1); whichhas no merit in itself, is not worthy of highthoughts at night (Cath. vi. 117), but pleads forthe intercession of the saints that he may betransferred from Christ’s left hand to His righton the judgment day (Perist. ii. 574; vi. 162;x. 1136), content if he be saved from the fires ofhell and gently purified for the lowest placeamong the saved (Ham. 931). (Authorities—his own works, especially the Preface, and Gen-nadius, de vir. ill. cap. 13.)

IVorfo,—Trithemius speaks of Pvudentius ashaving written secular poems in early life.Ihere is however no trace of them, unless thestyle of the later works be held to implyprevious practice. He also mentions proseworks and letters written later. Of these, too,there is no trace. The only non-extant workfor which there seems to be any authority, is an“ Hexaemeron,” a poem on the Creation, attri-buted to him by Gennadius. The extant worksare described in detail below. They fall intothree classes—(a) lyrical, (b) apologetic ordidactic, (c) allegorical. Their most remarkablecharacteristic is certainly their variety. Thelyrical poems are influenced in form and expres-sion by Horace, and also by Ambrose, and in ae»s degree by Damasus. The choice of metresand treatment, however, shew much originality.He uses 20 metres, 11 of which are slightly dif-erent from any in previous writers. What hadeen with Ambrose a short hymn, becomes aon g ode with moral exhortation, rhetoricalspeeches, and frequent Biblical illustration;ismg at times to much lyrical sweetness, andcombined with a clever variety of metre. Thei actic aim is however too prominent for lyri-

cal perfection, and only a few extracts have beenused in church services. The apologetic poems arealso perhaps primarily didactic . With the excep-tion of the Libri c. Symm . they do not seem calledforth by any special occasion, but serve a gene-ral purpose of presenting Christian doctrine inan attractive form ; naturally at the time, suchan attempt would take the shape of an answerto heretics. For form they are much indebtedto Virgil and, in a less degree, to Lucretius andJuvencus: for substance, to the earlier Chris-tian apologists, especially Tertullian and Am-brose. The allegorical poem is vigorous, andmainly interesting as the first specimen of atreatment which was frequently imitated inlater Christian literature, both poetry and prose.All the poems have a considerable literary value;they are written on the whole in good classicalLatin, with many new words needed for churchpurposes, and with a touch of archaic forms andwords which is characteristic of this period. Theprosody is fairly correct. Final o is shortenedin all terminations; short final syllables arefreely lengthened in caesura or before double con-sonants: a in acc. plural is frequently lengthened(i utraque, Cath. x. 5 ; eadem, Perist. i. 3), andthere are a few rare forms, and un-classicalquantities, but such eccentricities are very rarein Latin words, though Greek and Hebrew aretreated with great freedom (v. lists in Migne,Prolegg. xxiii. Obbar, pp. xvii. xviii.; and esp.Faguet, pp. 92-142, for a full examination ofthe language and metres).

The poems are written with great fluency,relieved by dramatic vividness (e.g. Perist. v.;c. Symm, ii. 654 sqq.), by rhetorical vigour ot'description (e.g. Apoth. 450-503; c. Symm.i. 415), by considerable power of satire (Apoth.186-206; Ham. 246) and humour (Perist. ii.169, 407; ix. 69, 82), and much epigrammaticterseness of expression; but at the same timethere is much tasteless dwelling on unpleasantdetails, as in the accounts of martyrdoms (e.g.Perist. x. 901), or of the coarsenesses of heathenmythology (Cath. vii. 115 sqq.). They are fullof typical adaptations of the Bible history (e.g.Prefaces to Mam., Psych., and i. ii. Symm.). Inthis way, and in the substance of. their argu-ments, they have a theological value, as shew-ing the tone of thought common at the time.The very fact, that they shew little originality ofthought, makes them even more valuable for thispurpose. (For the substance of the theology v.Brockhaus, cap. vii.) But perhaps their histori-cal value is the greatest. They give us con-siderable information about heathen antiquities,e.g. the kinds of torture in use (Perist. i. 42), me-thods of writing (Perist. ix. 23), the corn suppliesof Rome (c. Symm. ii. 920), the gladiatorialshows (c. Symm. i. 384; ii. 1690), the religiousrites (i. ii. c. Symm. passim, and Perist. x.). Buimore particularly is this true of Christian anti-quities : we see the luxury and avarice of thetimes (Ham. 246; Apoth. 183, 210, 450), theposition of deacons and archdeacons at Rome(Perist. ii. 37; v. 29), the times and details offasting (Cath. iii. 57; vii. viii. 9), the use ofanointing (Cath. vi. 125; ix. 98; Apoth. 357,493 ; Psych. 360), of the sign of the cross (Cath.vi. 129; ix. 84; Apoth. 493 ; c. Symm. ii. 712),of lights in churches, especially on Easter Eve(Cath. v.), of funeral rites (Cath. x. 49), of the