Ausonius

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Decim ( i ) us Magnus Ausonius (* around 310 in Burdigala ( Bordeaux ); † 393 or 394), also called Auson in German , was a late antique high Gallo-Roman civil servant, prince educator and poet.

Life

Ausonius was born in Burdigala (now Bordeaux) in 310 as the second of four children. He was the son of the doctor Iulius Ausonius and Aemilia Aeonia. While his father came from a humble background, his mother's family was an elegant Haeduer family . He was supposed to outlive all of his three siblings.

Ausonius grew up with his grandmother Aemilia Maura and then studied in his hometown and in Tolosa (now Toulouse) under the care of his uncle Aemilius Magnus Arborius , to whom he dedicated a poem of thanks, rhetoric and the liberal arts ; from 345 he worked there as a respected teacher of grammar and rhetoric. One of his students was Paulinus , who later became the bishop of Nola . His wife, Attusia Lucana Sabina, who came from a noble senatorial family and with whom he had three children, died young at the age of 28. Ausonius would regret her death all his life. The emperor Valentinian I , who ruled in the west of Rome , probably called Ausonius to his court in Trier in 365 , in order to take up a position at the imperial court as a teacher and tutor of Valentinian's eldest son Gratian , who was influenced by Ausonius. Ausonius traveled in a carriage along the Roman road , which today bears his name, from Mogontiacum via the Hunsrück to Augusta Treverorum .

After an imperial campaign against the Alemanni and Burgundians from 365-367, in which he participated as a war correspondent, he found the Alemanni girl Bissula from the area of ​​the Danube sources ( Baar ) among the spoils of war. He fell in love with the woman and Emperor Valentinian I gave her to him as a present. Ausonius legally married her as a free Roman citizen and took her to Italy with him. She inspired him to write the song cycle named after her, love poems to the blue-eyed, blonde German woman . 370 or 371 he was elevated to comes and 375 Quaestor sacri palatii . In the late Roman Empire, these were high court posts, which also prove the esteem Ausonius enjoyed, although he also acted extremely opportunistically at times. Valentinian I died in 375, but Ausonius' career continued under the new Emperor Gratian. In 378 he became Praetorian Prefect of Gaul and in 379 he held the still very prestigious consulate . His son Hesperius also rose to high offices, which Ausonius owed the favor of the emperor. After Gratian's murder in 383, Ausonius was initially detained by Magnus Maximus , but was able to return to his country estate in his Gallic homeland after his death in 388 at the latest, where he devoted himself to his literary works. Emperor Theodosius I expressed his appreciation for Ausonius by asking him in writing to send his works. Ausonius died in Burdigala after 393.

It is likely that Ausonius, who was also friends with Quintus Aurelius Symmachus , was a Christian, but was nevertheless quite close to paganism. Some of his works reveal Christian influences, although religious affiliation could fluctuate in the 4th century.

Ausonius owned a winery in Lucaniacus in what is now the Saint- Emilion area . It may have been at the place where the Château Ausone named after him now exists. According to recent findings, however, it could be the Château La Gaffelière .

Works

Ausonius's speech of thanks to Emperor Gratian for being awarded the consulate in 379. Manuscript: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. lat. 150 (15th century)

Ausonius was familiar with all of Roman literature. His works represent an important cultural and historical source for his time and can compete with the classical works of Latin poetry.

The travel description Mosella (called "Moselle poems" and "Moselle song") from the year 375 in 483 hexameters describes his impressions on the Roman military connection from Mainz ( Mogontiacum ) via Bingen (Bingium) and Neumagen (Noviomagus) to Trier ( Augusta Treverorum ), the he had traveled himself in 368. The Peutinger plaque named after Konrad Peutinger testifies that this street, now called Via Ausonia ( Ausoniusstraße ), really existed. On it are among others Belginum and Dumnissus . In Tacitus , this connection via the Hunsrück is mentioned indirectly earlier.

Other works:

  • Bissula , song cycle about the Alemannic girl of the same name
  • Cento nuptialis
  • Cupid cruciatus
  • Caesares , a collection of poems that covers the emperors up to Elagabal
  • Eclogae
  • Fasti
  • Gratiarum actio
  • Griphus ternarii numeri
  • Ludus Septem Sapientum (The Game of the Seven Wise Men)
  • Ordo urbium nobilium , cycle of poems about the most important cities of the Roman Empire: Rome, Constantinople, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, Trier, Milan, Capua, Aquileia, Arles, Emerita Augusta, Córdoba, Tarragona, Braga, Athens, Syracuse, Catania, Toulouse, Narbonne and Bordeaux.
  • Precationes variae
  • Versus Paschales , an Easter prayer for Valentinian I with Nicene confession of the Trinity
  • Correspondence, etc. a. with his student and friend Paulinus Nolanus
  • For example, an imperial poem ( Tyranni ) is lost, the source of which is the work of Eusebius of Nantes .
Giovanni Pietro Lasagna, Ausonius Monument in Milan

reception

Following the example of the Mosella , the young Ulrich von Hutten praised the Oder and its fish in his text In laudem carmen Marchiae , written in 1506 .

In Seibersbach im Hunsrück , the village community center has been called the Ausoniushalle since March 2015 . Ausoniusstraße runs about 2.9 km over Seibersbacher district and followed today's L 242.

Editions and translations

literature

Overview representations

Investigations

  • Altay Coşkun : The gens Ausoniana in power. Investigations into Decimius Magnus Ausonius and his family (= Prosopographica et Genealogica. Volume 8). Unit for Prosopographical Research, Oxford 2002, ISBN 1-900934-07-8 .
  • Hagith Sivan: Ausonius of Bordeaux. Genesis of a Gallic Aristocracy. Routledge, London et al. 1993, ISBN 0-415-08614-0 .

reception

  • Paul Dräger (Ed.): Mosella. Latin-German. Düsseldorf, Zurich 2004 (Tusculum study editions), pp. 114–121 ("Reception of Ausonius, especially Mosella").
  • Bert Selter: Ausonius (Decimus Magnus Ausonius). In: Christine Walde (Ed.): The reception of ancient literature. Kulturhistorisches Werklexikon (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 7). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02034-5 , Sp. 159-172.

General

Web links

Commons : Ausonius  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Ausonius  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Grimm: New contributions to the "fish literature" of the XV. to XVII. Century and through their printer and bookkeeper. In: Börsenblatt for the German book trade - Frankfurt edition. No. 89, November 5, 1968 (= Archive for the History of Books. Volume 62), pp. 2871–2887, here: p. 2885.
personal data
SURNAME Ausonius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ausonius, Magnus Decimius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman educator and poet
DATE OF BIRTH at 310
PLACE OF BIRTH Bordeaux
DATE OF DEATH 393 or 394