Prudentius

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Aurelius Prudentius Clemens , German Prudenz , (* 348 ; † after 405) was a Christian - late antique poet .

Life

childhood and education

Prudentius was born in the Roman province of Tarraconensis (northern Spain ). His exact place of birth is uncertain: it could have been Caesaraugusta ( Saragossa ), Tarraco ( Tarragona ) or Calagurris ( Calahorra ). According to his own statement, he was born in the year of office of the consul Salia (348). No information is available about his family, but it seems to have been a Christian and poor family home.

After attending elementary school, Prudentius went to a secondary school, which he had no good memories of later, like his entire childhood, because of the strict educational methods. Another memory of his youth was that of the government of Emperor Julian , who was in office from 360 to 363 and whose anti-Christian policies Prudentius - who apparently had already had a Christian upbringing - rejected. On March 17th of an unknown year (maybe 365) he ceremonially put on the men's toga , was declared of legal age and was put on the citizens' list. This was followed by the rhetorical and legal training, which he probably completed either in Caesaraugusta or in Tarraco, although Burdigala ( Bordeaux ) or Rome were also considered.

Legal and administrative activity in Spain

After completing his studies, Prudentius probably first had to fulfill the duties of the curials in his hometown, as was customary at the time . After a subsequent assistant work as a supernumerarius with another lawyer, he was able to become self-employed after a few years and was accepted into the collegium togatorum , the professional corporation of lawyers. This entitled to represent clients before the provincial court of a governor. Prudentius seems to have practiced his legal activities in his home country, i.e. in the provincial capital Tarracco, at least there is no reference to a longer stay abroad in his work.

The activity as an independent lawyer was limited by law to 20 years in order to free up space for future generations and was officially ended with the granting of various privileges. For Prudentius, the latter can be dated to the first half of the 390s. As a result, he was offered the office of governor ( praeses ) of the province of Hispania Tarraconensis. After exercising it, he was raised to the rank of vir spectabilis and was allowed to take part in the sessions of the Senate in Rome. A little later he became governor of a second province. His precise knowledge of the city of Emerita Augusta (today Mérida ) could be an indication that it was Lusitania , as it was administered from Emerita Augusta. Prudentius characterizes his two governorships as follows in his Praefatio : "I helped the good to justice, my word has instilled fear in the guilty."

Life at the imperial court, retreat and trip to Rome

In recognition of his achievements to date, Prudentius was summoned to the court of Emperor Honorius in the then imperial capital of Milan . There he belonged to a closer group of advisors, but more detailed information on his position and activities is not known. A few years later, around 400, he got into a life crisis and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to God. So he withdrew from public life, went back to his hometown and henceforth focused on glorifying God. Prudentius now lived as an ascetic , fasted every day until evening and did not eat any animal food. It was only during this time that he began to write, with which he wanted to acquire "a place in the heavenly vestibule as an inexpensive vessel". In a short time of about four to five years, his complete, preserved oeuvre, which comprises a total of 10890 verses, was created.

In early 401 he began a journey that took him through southern France and the Potal to the church of St. Cassian in Imola and finally to Rome . There he stayed for about a year, toured the important buildings in the city and took part in church celebrations and gladiator fights . Apart from this, he conducted research on the martyrs of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire in Christian cemeteries and in the imperial archives . In the spring / early summer of 402 he returned to Spain and continued his ascetic life.

Further life and transmission of the scriptures

Back home, he continues his literary activity. Around 404/405 he put together his collected works, added a foreword and an afterword and published them. From this point on, no more historical information is known about him. Prudentius presumably died in his home province of Tarraconensis, but the year of death is uncertain.

The collection of his poems has been passed down through numerous medieval manuscripts; in places it bears traces of later dogmatic revision.

meaning

Prudentius is the most important Christian poet of antiquity, but his works can only be dated very imprecisely. His poetry is influenced by early Christian writers such as Tertullian and Ambrosius of Milan as well as by the Bible and the acts of martyrs . But he also made use of his extensive knowledge of pagan texts and is certainly based on pagan models. His Christmas hymn Divinum Mysterium ( “Corde natus ex parentis” ) and the hymn for Epiphany O sola magnarum urbium , both from the Kathemerinon , are still in use today. In his work Contra Symmachum the reference to which is Ambrosian idea of Rome palpable that the idea of the grandeur of Rome with the renewal by the Christianity takes up.

But his most influential work is the Psychomachia , the first allegorical poem in Latin literature; it was the inspiration and source for the medieval allegories.

Prudentius was very popular in the Middle Ages and was also read in school lessons. Over 300 manuscripts have come down to us, the oldest from the 6th century.

Works

  • Liber Cathemerinon (German: Daily Book )
    comprises 12 poems written in lyrical stanzas at different times of the day and at church festivals
  • Liber Peristephanon (German: Märtyrerpreis )
    contains 14 poems written in lyrical stanzas on Spanish and Roman martyrs
  • The apotheosis (German: deification )
    a hexametric didactic poem ; attacks deniers of the Trinity and the deity of Jesus
  • Hamartigia (German: origin of sin )
    another hexametric didactic poem; the introduction attacks the Gnostic dualism of Marcion and his followers
  • Psychomachia (German: fight of the soul )
    describes in almost 1000 hexameters the fight of the personified faith , united with the seven cardinal virtues , against the seven vices for the human soul
  • Libri contra Symmachum (German: books against Symmachus )
    oppose the petition of the pagan senator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus that the altar of Victoria should be re-erected in the Senate House
  • Dittochaeon (German: The double feeding )
    comprises 49 four-line epigrams on images from the Old and New Testament

expenditure

Complete editions
  • Johannes Bergman: Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Carmina. Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig 1926.
  • Maurice Lavarenne: Prudence. Texts établi et traduit. 4 volumes, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1943–1951.
  • HJ Thomson: Prudentius. With an English translation ( Loeb Classical Library . Volumes 387 and 398). 2 volumes, Heinemann, Cambridge (Mass.) / London 1949–1953 (reprints 1993 and 1995).
  • Maurice P. Cunningham: Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Carmina. Brepols, Turnhout 1966.
  • Wolfgang Fels (Ed.): Prudentius. The complete works (= library of Middle Latin literature. Volume 9). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-7772-1111-4 .
Editions of individual works
  • Ursmar Engelmann : The Psychomachy of Prudentius. Introduction and translation. Herder, Freiburg 1959.
  • Renate Pillinger : The tituli historiarum or the so-called Dittochaeon of Prudentius. Attempt of a philological-archaeological commentary ( memoranda of the philosophical-historical class. ) Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-7001-0342-5 .
  • Prudentius: Contra Symmachum. Against Symmachus. Latin-German. Translated and introduced by Hermann Tränkle . Brepols, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52948-6 .
  • Prudentius: The origin of sin. An English translation of the Hamartigia. Translated and introduced by Martha A. Malamud. Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2011, ISBN 978-0-8014-4222-3 .
  • Gerard O'Daly: Days linked by song. Prudentius' cathemerinon. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-926395-0 .

literature

Lexicon article
General and biographical presentations
Detailed studies
  • Pierre-Yves Fux : Les sept Passions de Prudence (Peristephanon 2.5.9.11-14). Introduction générale et commentaire (= Paradosis. Volume 46). Editions Universitaires, Friborg 2003, ISBN 978-2-827-10957-9 .
  • Pierre-Yves Fux: Prudence et les martyrs. Hymnes et tragédie (Peristephanon 1.3-4.6-8.10). Commentaire (= Paradosis. Volume 55). Editions Universitaires, Friborg 2013, ISBN 978-2-8271-1076-6 .
  • Peter Habermehl: Prisci stemma ieiunii. The 'Book of Jonah' and Prudentius' seventh 'song of the day' . Hermes 132 (2004), pp. 102-120.
  • Paula Hershkowitz: Prudentius, Spain, and Late Antique Christianity. Poetry, Visual Culture, and the Cult of Martyrs. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017, ISBN 978-1-107-14960-1 .
  • Lydia Krollpfeifer: Rome with Prudentius. Poetry and world view in "Contra orationem Symmachi" (= Vertumnus. Berlin contributions to classical philology and its neighboring areas. Volume 12). Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8469-0270-7 .
  • Michael John Roberts : Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The "Liber Peristephanon" of Prudentius. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1993, ISBN 0-472-10449-7 .

Web links

Wikisource: Aurelius Prudentius Clemens  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prudentius, Peristephanon II, 537; VI, 145.
  2. ↑ Prudentius, Peristephanon IV, 142.
  3. ↑ Prudentius, Peristephanon VI, 143.
  4. ↑ Prudentius, Peristephanon I, 116; IV, 31.
  5. ^ Prudentius, Praefatio 24.
  6. ↑ Prudentius, Praefatio 7.
  7. ^ Prudentius, Praefatio 18 (translation by Wolfgang Fels).
  8. ↑ Quoted from Wolfgang Fels: Introduction. In: Derselbe (Ed.): Prudentius. The complete works (= library of Middle Latin literature. Volume 9). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-7772-1111-4 , pp. IX – XXXV, here p. XIII.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Fels: Introduction. In: Derselbe (Ed.): Prudentius. The complete works (= library of Middle Latin literature. Volume 9). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-7772-1111-4 , pp. IX – XXXV, here p. XVI.
  10. ^ Prudentius, Peristephanon 9.
  11. ↑ Prudentius, Peristephanon 12.
personal data
SURNAME Prudentius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prudentius Clemens, Aurelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique Christian Roman poet
DATE OF BIRTH 348
PLACE OF BIRTH Roman province of Tarraconensis
DATE OF DEATH after 405