Maximianus (poet)

Maximianus was a late antique Latin poet of the sixth century .

Maximianus, whose exact dates are unknown, was a contemporary of Theodoric the Great and Emperor Justinian . According to his work (3.48), he was a friend of the philosopher Boethius († around 525) in his youth , who helped him to get together with a woman he sought. Maximianus was presumably an Eastern European , but he may also have come from Italy, especially since he describes himself as an Etruscan - in late antiquity this could also mean something like 'primeval'. In any case, he knew both halves of the Imperium Romanum and, in addition to Theodoric, also mentions his indirect successor on the Ostrogothic throne, Theodahad . He also appears to have acted as envoy. If the statements in the poems are taken seriously as biographical references, the poet lived as an old man in Constantinople , while he had spent a lot of time in Rome when he was young.

Maximianus wrote elegies in cultivated Latin around the middle of the 6th century , six of which have survived. There are also the appendix and the imitation , which are added to the elegies in two of the surviving manuscripts, but which are probably not from Maximianus. Although he was probably a Christian, Maximianus conspicuously makes use of non-Christian-Pagan motifs and traditions that he knows thoroughly (especially Ovid ), while consistently avoiding direct Christian references. The main subject of his work is the complaint about old age, especially about the loss of virility, including explicit erotic allusions.

In older research, his elegies were read partly as parodies, partly simply as "undignified". Today, on the other hand, emphasis is placed on the classicist approach to the work, which deliberately refuses to accept Christian interpretations, and Maximianus is one of the last important poets of antiquity . His elegies were popular in the Middle Ages and have been handed down in several manuscripts.

Editions and translations

• Wolfgang Fels: Maximianus. Elegies. Appendix Maximiani. Latin and German, with annotations, vignettes by Bernd Fels. Libri Books on Demand 2000, ISBN 3-89811-952-1
• Wolfgang Christian Schneider: The elegiac verses of Maximian. One last contradiction against the new Christian era. With the poems of the Appendix Maximiana and the Imitatio Maximiani. Interpretation, text and translation (= Palingenesia. Volume 79). Steiner, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-07926-2 .

literature

• Reinhart Herzog : Maximian (4). In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 1110 f.
• Christine Ratkowitsch : Maximianus amat. On the dating and interpretation of the elegiac Maximian (= session reports of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical class. Volume 463). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7001-0752-8 .
• Wolfgang Christian Schneider: The elegiac verses of Maximian. One last contradiction against the new Christian era . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003.

Web links

Wikisource: Maximian  - sources and full texts