Prudentius
EN Lat Orig

Prudentius

Prudentius

Latin

Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was born in AD 348 in Spain — probably in Calagurris (modern Calahorra) or Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza). He practised law and held provincial governorships before retiring from public life around 392 to devote himself to Christian poetry. He is the greatest of the Latin Christian poets, and his hymns and allegorical poems were read throughout the Middle Ages with an intensity second only to Virgil.

His works include the Cathemerinon (twelve hymns for the hours of the day and seasons of the year), the Peristephanon (fourteen hymns honouring martyrs, some of startling violence and beauty), the Psychomachia (an allegorical battle between virtues and vices that invented the literary genre of psychomachia), and the Contra Symmachum (a verse polemic against the pagan senator Symmachus's plea to restore the Altar of Victory). He writes classical Latin hexameters and lyric metres with Horatian skill, but fills them with Christian content — a synthesis that no one else achieved so completely.

He died probably soon after 405. His influence on medieval literature, art, and theology was immense.

Works (9)

  • 1
    Apotheosis prose

    A theological poem defending the divinity of Christ against various heresies — Patripassianism, Sabellianism, and others. Prudentius does systematic t...

    1,152 lines
  • 2
    Cathemerina prose

    Twelve hymns for the hours of the day and the Christian year — from cock-crow to burial. The finest Latin hymns of the early church, several of which...

    12 books
    1,745 lines
  • 3
    Contra Orationem Symmachia oratory

    Two books arguing against the pagan senator Symmachus' plea to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate. Prudentius answers Symmachus' famous appeal...

    2 books
    1,943 lines
  • 4
    Dittochaeon prose

    Forty-nine quatrains describing scenes from the Old and New Testaments — meant as inscriptions for paintings in a church. The earliest Christian pictu...

    49 books
    196 lines
  • 5
    Epilogus prose

    A brief verse epilogue to Prudentius' collected works — the poet looks back on his career and dedicates his poetry to God.

    34 lines
  • 6
    Hamartigenia prose

    A hexameter poem on the origin of sin. Prudentius traces evil from its theological roots through human history — more theological treatise than narrat...

    63 lines
  • 7
    Liber Peristephanon prose

    Fourteen hymns celebrating the Roman martyrs — their sufferings, their courage, and their shrines. Prudentius creates a specifically Christian heroic...

    14 books
    3,762 lines
  • 8
    Praefatio prose

    A verse preface to Prudentius' collected works — autobiographical, confessional, and a statement of poetic purpose.

    45 lines
  • 9
    Psychomachia prose

    The first allegorical epic in Western literature. The virtues and vices fight a literal battle for the human soul — Faith against Idolatry, Chastity a...

    68 lines
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