LA0431. Corso monografico di Letteratura cristiana antica latina II(2 crediti nel II semestre): Prof. Biagio AmataArgomenti: 1.Christiana carmina Hilarii, Victorini, Ambrosii et Paulini NolaniTesti:

Commentarii professoris; S. Pricoco-M.Simonetti, La preghiera dei cristiani (Rocca di S.Casciano (FO), Arnoldo Mondadori Editore 2000); L. Pernot - G. Freyburger, Bibliographie analytique de la prière grecque et romaine (Brepols 2000);

CHRISTIANA CARMINA

Graecos, Romanos et fere omnes gentes deos coluisse hymnis Litterae docent.Christiani quoque eos usurpavere Hebraeorum innixi exemplo, Psalmis Deum laudantium,

et exhortationem secuti Pauli: "Commonentes vosmetipsos psalmis, hymnis, canticis spiritalibus" (Col 3,16).

Item Plinius ad Traianum: "Carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem".1 Videtur ergo praeter psalmos et biblica cantica mature hymnos composuisse christianos: "ut quisque de Scripturis sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocatur in medio Deo canere" (TERT., spect. 39). A Lactantio "divinorum scriptor hymnorum" (Inst. 3,5,14) avid vocatur. Hieronymus Psalmos et hymnos divinam maiestatem sollemniore modo canere proclamat, qui "ad ethicum locum pertinent" (Comm.Ephes. 3,5,19) sc. ad fidelium aedificationem.2 Item "Hymni - inquit Augustinus - sunt laudes Dei cum cantico". Hilarius Pictaviensis (+367) rimus carminum auctor, fortasse Graecos (arianos?) ecutus est, non sine metricis licentiis:

"An ego non canerem tanti praeconia Patris,munus opusque Dei, dum mihi lingua foret?

rauca quidem stridens et nullis digna coturnis,ingenium iacens: sed libet alta loqui".

Ambrosius quoque in basilica Portiana ab Arianis obsessa docuit hymnos, Ephraem potissimum exemplar habens.

Quindecim hymni Ambrosio adscribuntur dimetris iambicis, et "Ambrosiani" deinde appellantur hymni pari metro compositi, quin et Te Deum abusive adhuc dicitur Hymnus Ambrosianus. Quorum germani videntur: Aeterne rerum Conditor, Deus creator omnium, Veni, redemptor gentium, Iam surgit hora tertia. Simplices sunt et stilo nitido exarati: “suave sonantis Ecclesiae tuae vocibus commotus acriter" (Aug., Conf. 10,6) Hymni Hilari habentur poetica et theologica audacia: senarii iambici, gliconei, asclepiadei minores, tetrametri trochaici catalectici. Item M.Victorini hymni trinitarii potius oratio soluta numerosa videntur.

Psalmus abecedarius Psalmus contra partem Donati Augustini versibus 16 syllabarum similiter finientibus et interruptis versu intercalari [it. ritornello] contra donatistas, plurimum valuit apud populum:

Omnes qui gaudetis de pace, modo uerum iudicate.foeda est res causam audire et personas accipere /.omnes iniusti non possunt regnum dei possidere /. uestem alienam conscindas nemo potest tolerare: /quanto magis pacem christi qui conscindit dignus morte?et quis est ista qui fecit quaeramus hoc sine errore /.Omnes qui gaudetis de pace, modo uerum iudicate.Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres conturbare /.propter hoc dominus noster uoluit nos praemonere /comparans regnum caelorum reticulo misso in mare /.

1 Ep. X 96.7.2 W.EVENEPOEL, The place of poetry in Latin christianity: Actes du Symposium sur la poésie paléochrétienne, Leiden 1992; J.FONTAINE, Naissance de la poesie dans l'Occident chretien. Esquisse d'une histoire de la poesie latine chretienne du IIIe au VIe s., Paris 1981, et Etudes sur la poesie latine tardive d'Ausone a Prudence, Paris 1980; H.SPITZMULLER, Poesie latine chretienne du Moyen Age, IIIe-XVe s., Paris 1971; Ch.WITKE, The Old and the New in Latin Poetry from Constantine to Gregory the Greath: Numen Litterarum, Leiden 1971; Q.CATAUDELLA, Antologia cristiana dei primi secoli, Firenze 1969-70; J.E. RABY, History of Christian Latin Poetry, Oxford 19532; W.BULST, Hymni latini antiquissimi LXXV, Psalmi III, Heidelberg 1956; M.SIMONETTI, Studi sull'innologia popolare cristiana dei primi secoli: Atti Accademia Lincei, Mem.s.8, IV, Roma 1952, pp. 381-485.

congregauit multos pisces omne genus hinc et inde, /quos cum traxissent ad litus, tunc coeperunt separare: /bonos in uasa miserunt, reliquos malos in mare /...

Liturgia synagogalis Psalmis potissimum, hymnis et canticis spiritualibus utebatur (Eph 5,19): "Post aquam manualem et lumina, ut quisque de scripturis sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocatur in medium Deo canere; hinc probatur quomodo biberit".3 Libere et libertas canitur: "Laeti bibamus sobriam ebrietatem spiritus", quam Christus attulit in terram.

Novi Testamenti cantica rhythmo certo syllabarum et accentibus innituntur vel potius parallelismo sive synonymico sive antithetico sive synthetico, vel allitteratione, abecedario ordine.4

Poetae sunt Commodianus s.III, matrona Romana Proba Falconia quae centonem vergilianum composuit a.360 de mundi creatione et redemptione,5 Lactantius, auctor carminis De Ave Phoenice, Iuvencus, qui paraphrasim Evangeliorum composuit, Damasus martyrum epitaphiorum auctor.

Leges metricae ingeniumque novitati religionis aptantur. Carmina autobiographica sunt conscientiae discussio. Prudenti super omnes veluti aquila sublimis volitantis carmina pulcherrima non in Liturgia adhibita sunt. Seduli autem et Elpidi s.V hymni liturgici, rhythmo quantitate innixo, et accentibus, Auspici quoque adhuc cantitantur.

Hymni prohibiti Synodo Bragensi (a.563) Toletano (a.633) Hispaniae et Galliae iubentur. Regula Benedicti canonicis horis imperat. Romana Liturgia tantum s.XI-XII recepit in sollemnibus officiis.

Hymnarii a s.V sunt innumeri, teste Gennadio, Latinitate inaequales et artificiositate.6

Eorum anima inest praesertim melodiae Gregorianae quae coniungit perfecte stropharum formas.Carminum christianorum vestigia inveniuntur apud Tertullianum7.Tempore Theodosii (378-395) et Honorii (395-423) christiana carmina florent auctoribus

Damaso, Ambrosio, Prudentio, Paulino Nolano, et adhibentur in ritibus liturgicis.

COMMODIANUS (s.III-IV) Nomen legitur ex acrosticho in fine operis quod Institutiones inscribitur. Videtur

Commodianus Gazaeus, mendicus Christi, probabiliter ex Syria (J.Martin) nel Illyrico Romam vel in Africam vel in Galliam (Narbonensem) venisse, ubi poema didacticum edidit, Lucretium secutus. D.v. J.Fontaine consentit d.v. H. Dodwell, et paganum fuisse tenet, factum postea Iudaeum et denique christianum in Africa.8 Sunt qui medio s.III vixisse asseverent et primum poetam christianum habeant, alii V saeculo vixisse et opera edidisse ad refellendum deorum cultum, quia eius opus inscribitur: Carmen apologeticum adversus Iudaeos et Graecos.

De quo Gennadius: "Volens - inquit - aliquid studiorum suorum muneris offerre Christo, suae salutis auctori, scripsit mediocri sermone quasi versu adversus paganos. Et quia parum nostrarum adtigerat litterarum, magis illorum destruere potuit quam nostra firmare. Unde et de divinis repromissionibus adversus illos agens vili satis et crasso ut ita dixerim sensu disseruit, illis stuporem, nobis desperationem incutiens, Tertullianum et Lactantium et Papiam auctores secutus" (GENN., vir.inl. 15) Decretum Gelasianum apochrypha opuscula Commodiani improbat.

Exaltatio martyrii et millenarismus crisim resonant s.III sub Valeriano et Gallieno, et eius sensus videtur sincerus:Prima praefatio nostra uiam erranti demonstratrespectumque bonum, cum uenerit saeculi meta,aeternum fieri, quod discredunt inscia corda.Ego similiter erraui tempore multo

3 TERT. ap. 39,18.4 Cf. Lc 1,46-55.68ss; 2,29-32; Ph 2,5-11; 1Th 3,16; Eph 5,14; Ap 4-5, 11-12,15,19.5 D.Shanzer, The date and identity of the centonist Proba: Rech.Aug. 27(1994) -96.6 Dreves-Blume, Analecta hymnica medii Aevi, Leipzig 1881-1922, 150 voll.; V.CHEVALIER, Bibliotèque liturgique 1. Poésie liturgique du moyen âge, Paris 1893; J.E.RABY, A history of christian-Latin poetry... to the close of the middle age, Oxford 1927.7 Ap. 39,10; spect. 29; marc. 5,8; exh.cast. 10; res. 63. Sed utrum carmina nativa sint nescitur (nat. 2,7) : "Criminatores deorum poetas Plato censuit, ipsum Homerum sane coronatum civitate pellendum"; cf. Minucius (Oct. 23,1-2) : "Has - inquit - fabulas et errores studiis elaboramus, carminibus praecipue poetarum, qui plurimum quantum veritati ipsi sua auctoritate nocuerunt. Et Plato [res. 3,398a] ideo praeclare Homerum illum inclytum laudatum et coronatum de civitate, quam in sermone instituebat, eiecit".

8 A.SALVATORE, Instructiones, Napoli 1965-68.2

fana prosequendo parentibus insciis ipsis;abstulit me tandem inde legendo de lege,testifico dominum: doleo pro ciuica turba,inscia quod pergit periens deos quaerere uanos;ob ea perdoctus ignaros instruo uerum.

Institutiones (Instructiones) .2 editi a.1649, tradunt carmina octoginta: in primo libro 41, in altero 39, nulla rei cura habita. Alia breviora (6 hexametri) longiora alia (48 hexametri) pleraque acrosticha (acrostichides per primas litteras versuum titulum faciunt) quibus praecepta de moribus dantur ad gentes (36) ad Iudaeos (9) ad erudiendos catechumenos (35) ad fideles in christianis moribus firmandos, et ad poenitentiam hortandos.

Carmen apologeticum sive de duobus populis (1060 hexametri) inventum in monasterio Nonantulano, prope Mutinam, et editum a card. I.B.Pitra a.1852, paganorum irridet mythologiae et Iudaeorum cordis duritiae: adversus Iudaeos et Graecos. Eadem utitur vehementia ac Tertullianus et contrra gentiles et in Iudaeos ('stulti') neque christianis parcit, saeculo indulgentibus.

Prosodia et metrica evolutionem phoneticam testantur. Prosodiae leges fere neglectae sunt et quantitas numero et accentibus cedit. Plura sunt verba similiter cadentia. Constans est tantum accentus quinque syllabarum in fine versus: trisyllabum verbum est dactylus, et bisyllabum spondaeus vel trochaeus. Parallelismum ita adhibet ut bini hexametri Librorum Sacrorum versus imitentur. Vis tragica turget cum novissima mundi describit, taeterrimis imaginibus (C.A. 1011-1018):

"Rugit pestifera clades, tremit excita tellus,nec, quo se avertat providet gens omnis humana.Stellae cadunt caeli, iudicantur astra nobiscum;turbantur caelicolae, agitur dum saecli ruina.Suppetium nullum tunc erit et clamor inanis;non navis accipiet hominem, non ulla latebra;nec illi subveniunt, quos ante pro magno colebant; [dei pagani]quisque sibi satagit, sed nil proficiet illi;his tantum proficiet, qui fuerint Christo notati".

Vocatum est Carmen de duobus populis a d. v. Martin quia unitatem utriusque Testamenti illustrat. Roma "Luget in aeternum quae se iactabat aeternam", cum Ammianus eius occasum conatur celare: «Victura dum erunt homines Roma».

Historia salutis est pugna Dei et Satanae usque ad Verbi incarnationem, cuius insigne est 'lignum' crucis, usque ad eversionem Urbis et finale iudicium.

Trinitatem ad Patrem et Filium contrahit (K.Traede) fidem proponit fanaticam, mores severiores, extremum millenarismum, librum Enoch sequens docentem deos paganos filios esse angelorum et mulierum mortalium. J.Fontaine putat eum fortasse quoddam experimentum controculturae perfecisse sed animos movet ('a scatti tumultuosi e brevi': S.Mazzarino) Fortasse a doctis viris Perret et Hoppenbrouwers nimium extollitur, sed poeta germanus videtur: "Quidquid est unum est, immenso lumine solus" (c.a. 1060).

Indignatio Dei

In lege praecepit dominus caeli, terrae marisque:nolite, inquid, adorare deos inanesde manibus uestris factos ex ligno uel auro,indignatio mea ne uos disperdat ob ista.Gens ante moysi rudis, sine lege moratanesciensque deum, defunctos reges orabant,ad quorum effigies faciebant idola uana.

VETTIUS AQUILINUS IUVENCUS (+ 337?) 9

Exeunte s.IV et ineunte s.V poetae christiani carmen renovant rem canendam a Scriptura sumentes, quam splendida forma induendam esse putabant. Ex hoc praeiudicio quoddam contenutistico semper laboravit poeta christianus, ut paraphrasis non creatio dicenda sint carmina

9 A.P. ORBÁN, Juvencus als Bibelexeget und als Zeuge der Afrikanischen Vetus-Latina-Tradition. Untersuchungen der Bergpredigt (Mt 5,1-48) in der Vetus Latina und in der Versification des Jyvencus (I 452-572): Vig.Chr. 49(1995)334-352.

3

biblica. Apollinaris, pater et filius, Historiam composuere sacram 24 libris hexametris homericis; evangelia quoque ad modum dialogorum platonicorum disposuere, hymnos denique pyndaricos composuere. Augusto Constantinus succedit, Musis Spiritus Sanctus. Huiusmodi conatus perfecit Iuvencus.10

Presbyter factus fere a.330 Matthaei (Lucae et Ioannis) evangelium carminibus concinnis Vergilianis et Vetus Testamentum partim hexametris partim aliis versibus retexuit, auctor factus poesis christianae doctae. Centones finem habuerunt seducendi doctos viros per stilum et versionem Scripturarum, auribus paganis accommodatam.

Euangeliorum libri iv, praef.,

Inmortale nihil mundi conpage tenetur, /Non orbis, non regna hominum, non aurea Roma, /Non mare, non tellus, non ignea sidera caeli. /Nam statuit genitor rerum inreuocabile tempus, /Quo cunctum torrens rapiat flamma ultima mundum. / 5Sed tamen innumeros homines sublimia facta /Et uirtutis honos in tempora longa frequentant, /Adcumulant quorum famam laudesque poetae. /Hos celsi cantus, Smyrnae de fonte fluentes, /Illos Minciadae celebrat dulcedo Maronis... / 10Quod si tam longam meruerunt carmina famam, / 15Quae ueterum gestis hominum mendacia nectunt, /Nobis certa fides aeternae in saecula laudis /Inmortale decus tribuet meritumque rependet. /Nam mihi carmen erit Christi uitalia gesta, /Diuinum populis falsi sine crimine donum. / 20

DAMASUS (366-384)

Nimis fortasse est elata indoles fortis et auctoritativa papae Damasi Hispani, Liberii successoris, tumultuarie electi octo fere annos antequam Ambrosius ad sedem Mediolanensem ascenderet.

Contra haereticos et schismaticos pugnavit, catacumbas et basilicas piissime coluit, liturgiam ordinavit, tabularia ordinavit, potissimum Bibliam vertendam Hieronymo commisit.

Elogium funebre in laudes martyrum contraposuit Romanis avos suos laudantibus, creavitque genus christianum epigrammatum.

Hexametris plerumque, fere 60 supersunt elogia, a calligrapho Filocalo sculpta litteris pulcherrimis oncialibus.

Carmen in honorem S.Agnetis [hex]:

Fàma refèrt sanctòs │ dudùm retulìsse parèntesAgnen, cum lugubres cantus tuba concrepuisset,

nutricis gremium subito liquisse puellam,sponte trucis calcasse minas rabiemque tyranni.

Urere cum flammis voluisset nobile corpus,viribus inmensum parvis superasse timorem,

nudaque profusum crinem per membra dedisse,ne domini templum facies peritura videret.

O veneranda mihi, sanctum decus, alma pudoris,ut Damasi precibus faveas precor, inclyta martyr. (Sfr. ep. 37 Ferrua)

AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS (348-405)

Post Commodiani, matronae Romanae Probae Falconiae, Lactantii De Ave Phoenice, Iuvenci, Damasi, Hilarii, Victorini, Ambrosii carmina inventor christianae poesis habetur Prudentius, qui Vergilii et Horatii famam aequavit, ut ait Sidonius Apollinaris (2, ep. 9) Prudentius

10 S.COSTANZA, Da Giovenco a Sedulio. I proemi degli 'Evangeliorum libri' e del 'Carmen Paschale': Civ.Class.Crist. 6(1985)253-286; W.RÖTTGER, Studien zur Lichtmotivik bei Iuvencus. Münster 1996.

4

et Paulinus Nolanus germano ingenio poetico praediti, novis sensibus christiana carmina exaraverunt et sicut Ambrosius eloquentiam et mores ad christianam convertit doctrinam et Augustinus corpus philosophicum veluti encyclopaediam scientiarum liberalium edidit, ad renovandam rhetoricam classicam, Prudentius poeta christianus - h)rwj suggenei/aj - genius generis11 summus cantor rerum divinarum factus, non minor poeta quam theologus iure exhibetur, secutus Irenaei christologicam (et mariologicam) doctrinam.

Hispanus, ut videtur, Calagurri (Quintiliani in civitate, prope altum Hiberum) nel Caesaraugustae [Saragozza] natus, consiliarius fuit imperatoris Theodosii.12

In villam patrum, 56 annum agens, cum secessisset, ad fidem convertitur, ut Paulinus Nolanus, et sequitur exemplum Sulpicii Severi, qui paucis ante annis Primuliacum redierat.

A.398-405 sub Honorio et Stilicone, Claudiani novissimi poetae pagani coaevus, summam creavit christianorum carminum, quae fere 20.000 versibus et doctrina superant coaeva carmina et metrorum varietate, et sincera fide contra haereses et paganos, et lyrica musa in laudem martyrum et christianae vitae.

De se tradit in Apotheosi, in praefationibus et epilogis, inter quae eminet praefatio Cathemerinon, quae haberi potest generalis introductio ad omnia opera et quaedam doctrina de poesi christiana.

Perpauca inveniuntur quoque in opere Peristephanon, ut Iure Waddel inter Latinos poetas minus egotisticum dixerit ("The least egotical of the Christian latin poets": Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, London 19303, p.297) Horatium sequitur titulum Graecum superimponentem carminibus “inscius tamen Graeci sermonis” (D'Elia, o.c., p.121) eiusque metra non rem imitatur. Etenim Horati carmina 'pyndarica' enarrant mythos Graecos vel Romanos, Prudentius vero celebrat Biblicas historias et martyres.

Verum versuum varietate, quantitate et sermonis sublimitate vincit Horatium ceterosque poetas, adhibens Falecios hendecasyllabos, trimetra iambica, Asclepiadeos, dymetra anapaestica, endecasyllabum Alcaicum κατα\ στι/χon, per 100 et 1000 versus carmen quodque compopnens.

Stilus 'medius' Horati 'pyndaricus' et tragicus exhibetur, more Senecano, ut Peristephanon 10 a d.v. Di Berardino definitum sit 'scaenica compositio', rhetoricis farcitum artificiis et symbologia ab exegesi biblica potissimum Ambrosiana sumpta. Hisce in carminibus passiones martyrum rationem vulgi amittunt et ad sublime elevantur.

Innovat epos celebrans pugnam contra malum, crebra variatione metrorum, mente in initio carminum expressa (intellectualismum aliquando sapiente) rhetoricis sermonibus in ore martyrum positis, veritate cruda descriptionum martyrii.

At Prudentius, ut est poeta, novit humana divinis miscere, historiam Romae in historiam Christianismi mutare.

In Cathemerinon praefatione Prudentius quinquagesimum annum agens (1-3) eractam vitam enarrat (4-18) praecelsum ab imperatore munus susceptum (19-21) de morte meditatur, de poesi denique, quae canentem aut scribentem liberet a corpore.

Poetica vocatio tamquam conversionis exitus repraesentatur atque veluti officium: 'vacet, canat, pugnet, discutiat, conculcet, inferat, devoveat, laudet'.

Natum se esse tradit a.348, Salia et Philippo consulibus, pueritiam sub Iuliano transegisse, liberalibus disciplinis imbutum; causidici inde munere functum, magnam famam adeptum esse ac publicis officiis praepositum sub Theodosio; comitem quoque fuisse primi ordinis; demum Christo totum se addixisse et carminibus Deum laudare non destiturum; a.405 (58 agens annum) pera omnia collegisse ac in septem libros distribuisse. Romam invisit probabiliter anno 401.

1. Pér quinquénnia iàm decém, glyconius2. nì fallòr, fuimùs; | séptimus ìnsuper asclepiadeus minor3. ànnum càrdo rotàt, | dùm fruimùr | sòle volùbili. ascelpiadeus Maior

4. Instat tèrminus, èt diem5. vicinum senio | iam Deus adplicat:6. quìd nos utile iàm | ìn spatiò | tèmporis ègimus?

7. Aetas prima crepantibus8. flevit sub ferulis; mox docuit toga

11 A.A.R. Bastiaensen, Prudentius in recent literary criticism: Early Christian poetry, Leiden 1993, 101-134. 12 Intemerata puella. Estudios de mariologia prudenciana (a cura di J.P. Torró), Valencia 1992; M.B. LEFKOWITZ, First Person Fictions Pindar's Poetic 'I', Oxford 1991; A.ORTEGA - RODRIGUEZ A., Aurelio Prudencio, Obras completas (BAC), Madrid 1981; R.HERZOG, Die allegorische Dichtkunst des Prudentius, München 1966; K.THRAEDE, Studien zur Sprache und Stil des Prudentius, Göttingen 1965.

5

9. infectum vitiis | falsa loqui, | non sine crimine.10.Tum lasciva protervitas11.et luxus petulans (heu pudet ac piget!) 2.foedavit iuvenem nequitiae sordibus et luto.

13.Exim iurgia turbidos exin, exinde14.armarunt animos, et male pertinax15.vincendi studium subiacuit casibus asperis.

16.Bis legùm moderamine17.frenos nobilium reximus urbium18.ius civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos.

19.Tandem militiae gradu20.evectum p i e et a s principis extulit,21.adsumptum propius stare iubens ordine proximo.

22.Haec dum vita volàns agit,23.inrepsit subito canities seni,24.oblitum veteris me Saliae consulis arguens,

25.sub quo prima diès mihi.26.Quam multas hiemes volaverit et rosas 27.pratis post glaciem reddiderit, nix capitis probat.

28.Numquid talia proderunt29.carnis post obitum vel bona vel mala,30.cum iam, quidquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit?

31.Dicendùm mihi: 'quisquis es,32.mundum, quem coluit, mens tua perdidit;33.non sunt illa Dei, quae studuit, cuius habeberis'.

34.Atqui fine sub ultimo 1. propositum vitae novae35.peccatrix anima stultitiam exuat;36.saltem voce Deum concelebret, si meritis nequit. 2.carmina

37.Hymnis continuèt dies, 3. opera: a) athemerinon 38.nec nox ulla vacet, quin Dominum canat;39.pugnet contra haereses, catholicam discutiat fidem;b) poth., Ham., Ps.

40.conculcet sacra gentium,41.labem, Roma, tuis inferat idolis; c) ontra Symmachum

42.carmen martyribus devoveat, laudet apostolos. d) eristephanon 43.Haec dum scribo vel eloquor, 4. spes vitae aeternae44.vinclis o utinam corporis emicem45.liber, quo tulerit lingua sono mobilis ultimo!

Lyrica potissimum sunt Cathemerinon et Peristephanon, didactica autem Apotheosis, Hamartigenia, Psychomachia, Contra Symmachum L.2, Dittochaeon. Praecedit Praefatio, sequitur Epilogus (34 v. metro hipponacteo) Eulogia (ARIST., rhet. 1,1368 a 10-11) espicit et poetam, et eum qui carmen imperat et eos qui audiunt, ergo facile iteraratur, sed historica adiuncta nonnisi ex interna analysi deteguntur, ut sequenda sit Einzelinterpretation.

Pre/pon cum kairo/j copulatur, at interdum veritas obscuratur. Pyndari mythus rei aptatur non theorice sed poetice ludos, historiam localem et virtutem extollens, qui saepe ornatus habetur vel exaltatio allegorica eventus coaevi. Non datur igitur schema unum et pro semper.

Poeta quoque cum suo “ego” vel generice vel autobiographice ingredi potest comparans semetipsum cum victore vel cum mythico heroe; qui quidem exemplar vel antiexemplar proponi potest.

Ad captandam benevolentiam in exordio vel in fine carminis rationes operis declarant Graeci et Latini necnon autobiographica non raro.13 Poeta christianus Dei laudibus salutem et immortalitatem consecuturum se sperat.

13 VERG., georg. 2,175; PROP., 2.10,5; Ausonius (pr. 1,2-4): "Qui sim, qua stirpe, lare et patria, / adscripsi, ut nosses, bone vir, quicumque fuisses, / et notum memori me coleres animo"; Horatius, Carm. 1,1,35-6; 3,30, et Ovidius, Tristia 4,10.129-130, immortalitatem carminibus adepturos se esse sperant.

6

Kathemerinon liber

Kaqhmerino/j valet 'cotidianus', liber est ergo hymnorum diei.14

Nam XII hymni ordinem hymnorum liturgiae horarum et dierum sequuntur, diversam metrorum formam habentes ad consecranda tempora et actiones diei. Nescimus utrum ad cantum exarati sint.

Hymnos temporum 'fortium' diei et anni spiritualia carmina sequuntur dimetris iambicis, stropha sapphica Horatiana, tetrametris trocaicis catalecticis, quibus usus est Hilarius.

Minus apti ad liturgiam ac Ambrosii, minusque Theologia referti ac Hilarii, tamen lyrice utrosque vincunt et carmina horatiana redolent.1. Hymnus ad galli cantum (cf Ambrosium: dimetri iambici) 2. Hymnus matutinus

(dimetri iambici) . Hymnus ante cibum (trimetri dact. hypercatal., str pentasticha) . Hymnus post cibum (falecii) . Hymnus ad incensum lucernae (asclepiadaei minores) . Hymnus ante somnum (dimetri iambici catalectici) eteri (sex) itam christianam et Redemptorem liturgice spectant:7. Hymnus ieiunantium (trimetri iambici - stropha pentastica) . Hymnus post ieiunium

(stropha sapphica) . Hymnus omnis horae (tetrametri trochaici cat = septenarii troch) 0 Hymnus circa exequias defuncti (dimetri anapaestici catalectici) 1 Hymnus VIII Kal. Ianuarias

(Natalicius: dimetri iambici) 2 Hymnus Epifaniae (dimetri iambici) Salvète, flòres màrtyrùm, quos lucis ipso in limineChristi insectator sustulit, ceu turbo nascentes rosa!" (12,125s) Cath. 5 Ad incensum lucernae summam attingit sublimis stili: lux Dei splendet in luminibus Ecclesiae, in rubro ardenti Moisis, in columna ignea ducens Hebraeos ad libertatem, in Paradiso. In epilogo sobria meditatio mortis digne claudit opus universum. Vergilius aliique contaminantur cum cantico ad lucem Ps 26[27]1: Dominus inluminatio mea, et Ps 35[36]10: In lumine tuo videbimus lumen:

Péndent mòbilibùs │ lùmina fùnibùs, 141 asclepiadei min.quae subfixa micant | per laquearia,et de languidulis | fota natalibuslucem perspicuo | flamma iacit vitro.

Credas stelligeram desuper aream 145ornatam geminis stare trionibuset, qua bosphoreum temo regit iugum,passim purpureos spargier hesperos.

O res digna, Pater, quam tibi roscidae 149noctis principio grex tuus offerat,lucem, qua tribuis nil pretiosius,lucem qua reliqua praemia cernimus!

Tu lux vera oculis, lux quoque sensibus, 153intus tu speculum, tu speculum foris;lumen, quod famulans offero, suscipetinctum pacifici chrismatis unguine,

per Christum genitum, summe Pater, tuum, 157in quo visibilis stat tibi gloria,qui noster Dominus, qui tuus unicusspirat de patrio corde Paraclitum,

per quem splendor honos laus sapientia 161maiestas bonitas et pietas tuaregnum continuat numine triplici,texens perpetuis saecula saeculis.

Peristephanon seu De coronis (251-389)

Peri\ stefanw=n, de coronis, canit epinikion martyrum et est optimum et summum Prudentii opus, cohaerens cum Cathemerinon.15

Hymni XIV varii metris et extensione (nonnulli longiores) n honorem martyrum

14 J.-L. CHARLET, La creation poetique dans le Cathemerinon de Prudence, Paris 1982.15 A.-M. PALMER, Prudentius on the Martyrs (=Oxford Classical Monographs), Oxford 1989 (bibliographia et fontes: pp. 281-311).

7

Hispanorum ac Romanorum "militiam Christi" celebrant, cuius fontes martyrum sunt acta, passiones, cultus, loci biblici. Epinici inventor stultitiam crucis canit et triumphalismi tentationem fugat vel in nimiis atque irridentibus atrocitatibus.16

I. Hymnus in honorem Sanctorum Martyrum Emeteri et Chelidoni (120 tetrametri catalectici) cripta sunt caelo duorum martyrum uocabula, /

aureis quae christus illic adnotauit litteris, /sanguinis notis eadem scripta terris tradidit. /

Pollet hoc felix per orbem terra hibera stemmate, /hic locus dignus tenendis ossibus uisus deo /qui beatorum pudicus esset hospes corporum. /

II. Passio Laurenti Beatissimi Martyris(584 dimetri iambici acatalectici) Prudentii mens de Romani imperii missione:

antiqua fanorum parens /iam roma christo dedita, /laurentio uictrix duce /ritum triumfas barbarum. /

Reges superbos uiceras / 5populosque frenis presseras, /nunc monstruosis idolis /inponis imperii iugum. /

Haec sola derat gloria / urbis togatae insignibus, / 10

feritate capta gentium /domaret ut spurcum iouem, /non turbulentis uiribus /

cossi camilli aut caesaris, /sed martyris laurentii / 15non incruento proelio. /

... Postquàm vapòr diùtinùs 397decoxit exustum latus,ultro e catasta iudicem conpellat adfatu brevi:

Converte partem corporis 401satis crematam iugiter lenteet fac periclum quid tuus comprobaVulcanus ardens egerit".

Praefectus inuerti iubet. / 405Tunc ille: "coctum est deuora /et experimentum cape / tu probasit crudum an assum suauius!" /

haec ludibundus dixerat, /caelum deinde suspicit / 410et congemescens obsecrat /miseratus urbem romulam: /

"o christe, nomen unicum, /o splendor, o uirtus patris, /o factor orbis et poli / 415atque auctor horum moenium, /

"qui sceptra romae in uertice /rerum locasti, sanciens /mundum quirinali togae /seruire et armis cedere, / 420

"ut discrepantum gentium /

16 L.ALFONSI, Sulla 'militia' di Prudenzio: VChr 13(1959)181-3; J.AUER, 'Militia Christi': Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 10, 1210-33; M.CATALANO, L'eroe nel mondo classico e nel mondo cristiano con particolare riguardo all'eroe cristiano in Prudenzio: RSC 1(1952)5-23); J.PETRUCCIONE, The Martyr Death as Sacrifice: Prudentius, Peristephanon 4,9-72: Vig.Chr. 49(1995)245-257.

8

mores et obseruantiam /linguasque et ingenia et sacra /unis domares legibus! /

"en omne sub regnum remi / 425mortale concessit genus, /idem loquuntur dissoni /ritus, id ipsum sentiunt. /...

V. Passio Sancti Vincenti martyris (576 dimetri iambici acatalectici)

Beàte màrtyr, pròsperà /diem triumfalem tuum /quo sanguinis merces tibi /corona, vincenti, datur. /

VI. Hymnus in honorem Beatissimorum martyrum Fructuosi episcopi, Augurii et Eulogii (162 hendecasyllabi phalecii)

Fèlix tàrraco, frùctuòse, uèstris /àttollìt caput ìgnibùs corùscum /lèuitìs geminìs procùl relùcens. /

Hispanos deus aspicit benignus, /arcem quandoquidem potens hiberam / 5trino martyre trinitas coronat. /

Fors dignabitur et meis medellam / 160tormentis dare prosperante christo /dulces hendecasyllabos reuoluens. /

VII. Hymnus in honorem Quirini beatissimi martyris episcopi Ecclesiae Siscianae (Sisek, in Croatia - 90 gliconei in tropha pentasticha)

Ìnsignèm meritì uirùm, /quirinum placitum deo, /urbis moenia sisciae /concessum sibi martyrem /conplexu patrio fouent. /

Hic sub galerio duce, /qui tunc illyricos sinus /

urgebat dicionibus, /fertur catholicam fidem /inlustrasse per exitum. /

VIII. De loco in quo martyres passi sunt nunc baptisterium est Calagorra (18 vv. distichi elegiaci)

Electus christo locus est, ubi corda probata /prouehat ad caelum sanguine, purget aqua. /

Hic duo purpureum domini pro nomine caesi /martyrium pulchra morte tulere uiri. /

Hic etiam liquido fluit indulgentia fonte / 5ac ueteres maculas diluit amne nouo. /

Qui cupit aeternum caeli conscendere regnum, /huc ueniat sitiens, ecce parata uia est. /

IX. Passio Cassiani Forocorneliensis (Imola) 102 vv. Epodi: hexametri + trimetri iambici)

Sylla forum statuit cornelius; hoc itali urbem /uocitant ab ipso conditoris nomine. /

Hic mihi, cum peterem te, rerum maxima roma, /spes est oborta prosperum christum fore. /

Stratus humi tumulo aduoluebar quem sacer ornat /

9

martyr dicato cassianus corpore. /

Catacumbae

Hàud procul èxtremò | cult[a] àd pomèria vàllo 153mèrsa latèbrosìs | crpta patèt foveìs.

Huius in occultum gradibus via prona reflexis 155ire per anfractus luce latente docet.

Primas namque fores summo tenus intrat hiatuinlustratque dies limina vestibuli.

Inde ubi progressu facili nigrescere visa estnox obscura loci per specus ambiguum, 160

occurrunt celsis immissa foramina tectis,quae iaciant claros antra super radios.

Quamlibet ancipites texant hinc inde recessusarta sub umbrosis atria porticibus,

at tamen excisi subter cava viscera montis 165crebra terebrato fornice lux penetrat.

Sic datur absentis per subterranea soliscernere fulgorem luminibusque frui".

XIII. Passio Cypriani(106 archilochei = tetrametri dactylici acat. + itifallici)

Pùnica tèrra tulìt quo splèndeat | òmne quìdquid ùsquam est, /ìnde domò cypriànum, sèd decus | òrbis èt magìstrum. /

XIV. Passio Agnes (133 hendecasyllabi alcaici)

Agnes sepulcrum est romulea in domo /fortis puellae martyris inclytae. /Conspectu in ipso condita turrium /seruat salutem uirgo quiritium /nec non et ipsos protegit aduenas / 5puro ac fideli pectore supplices. /Duplex corona est praestita martyri: /intactum ab omni crimine uirginal /mortis deinde gloria liberae. /Sic nùpta Chrìsto trànsiliàm poli 79omnes tenebras aethere celsior.

Apotheòsis

)Apoqe/wsij est divinisatio scilicet humanae naturae in Persona Verbi. Hexametris 1084 (ut in carminibus didascalicis) xtollitur mysterium Trinitatis et Incarnationis contra Patripassianos (1-177) qui Filium habebant imaginem Patris, contra unionitas et Sabellianos (178-320) qui divinas personas divinas habebant tres modos unius Dei, id est Pater in creando, Filius in redimendo, Spiritus sanctus in sanctificando, contra Iudaeos (321-551) contra homunconitas (552-781) contra Ebionitas et Gnosticos (782-951) qui Iesum hominem vel tantum prohetam habebant, contra Manichaeos et docetas (952-1084) Praefatio I est Hymnus Trinitatis (vv.12) Est tria summa deus; trinum specimen, uigor unus. /

Corde patris genita est sapientia, filius ipse est. /Sanctus ab aeterno subsistit spiritus ore. /

Praefatio II (vv.56. Epodi: senarii iambici + dimetri iambici acatalectici)

Pèllite còrde metùm, mea mèmbra, et crèdite uòsmet / 1080cum christo reditura deo; nam uos gerit ille /

et secum reuocat.Morbos ridete minaces, /

10

inflictos casus contemnite, taetra sepulcra /despuite. Exsurgens quo christus prouocat ite! /

HamartigeniaR.PALLA, Hamartigenia. Pisa 1981.

(Αmartige/neia - origo mali - declarat originale peccatum et originem omnis peccati in hominis arbitrio positam, contra Marcionitas (cf Tertullianus) et Manichaeos. Praefatio - 63 senarii iambici -, praecedit 903 hexametros dactylicos.

Fratrès ephèbi fòssor èt pastòr duò, /quos fèminàrum prìma prìmos pròcreàt, /sistunt ad aram de laborum fructibus /deo sacranda munerum primordia. /Hic terrulentis, ille uiuis fungitur. / 5Certante uoto discrepantes inmolant /fetum bidentis alter ast alter scrobis. /

PsychomachiaGernot WIELAND, Aldhelm's De Octo Vitiis Principalibus and Prudentius' Psychomachia: Medium Aevum 55(1986) -92.

Pugna de anima est poematium allegoricum (943 hexametri; praecedunt 68 senarii iambici) Virtutes personificatae in hominis animo contra sex vitia pugnant: fides contra idolatriam, castitas contra impudicitiam, patientia contra iram, humilitas contra superbiam, sobrietas contra luxuriam (sensualitatem) caritas contra avaritiam.

Vincunt virtutes. Discordia seu haeresi profligata, Concordiae et Fidei novum templum aedificatur.

Magni est factum aetate quae dicitur media hoc poemation didacticum et quasi exemplar ceterorum poematum allegoricorum, quae pugnam spiritualis animae celebrant et individuam et historicam, quin etiam eventus quippe qui sint 'signa' salutis.

Anglosaxoni scriptoris Aldhelmi (c.640-710) armen de Virginitate obscure includit De Virtutum Pugna cum Vitiis seu Bella Vitiorum, quae nonnulla communia habent cum Psychomachia.

Huusmodi personificatio inde ab Homero, et inter christianos, inde ab Hermae Pastore et Tertulliano (spect. 29,5) erivat. Potissimum Vitia et Virtutes finxerunt viventia Seneca (De vita beata 7) Claudianus (Laus Stilichonis 2,100-118) Martianus Capella (De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae) Feliciter Prudentius mulieres fingit personas huiusmodi pugnae. Innititur praeprimis Libris sacris - e.c. Luxuria: Prov.5 - Vergilio, Seneca, Petronio, Tertulliano, Ambrosio, Hieronymo, Claudiano.

Hexametri classici textibus biblicis aptantur. Contra Superbiam:Pervulgata viget nostri sententia Christi: 289

scandere celsa humiles et ad ima redire feroces. (Lc 14,11) vangelicus parallelismus antitheticus definitur 'pervulgata sententia'. Christus dicitur 'noster' (Paulus: Dominus noster Iesus Ch.; CIC., Arch. 22: Ennius noster) Una vox 'humiles' est biblica, cetera sermo aetatis.

Dittochaeumseu Tituli historiarum (Editor Cunningham)

Dittochaeum [-aeon] fortasse duplex nutrimentum Graeca vox significat, Veteris (1-24) cilicet et Novi Testamenti (25-28) Metra. Tetrastichi hexametri Imitantes atque innovantes πι/vακεj Callimachi, quos Varro Romam importaverat.

ADAM ET EVAEua columba fuit tunc candida, nigra deindefacta per anguinum malesuada fraude uenenumtinxit et innocuum maculis sordentibus adam;dat nudis ficulna draco mox tegmina uictor.

VI. SOMNIUM FARAONIS

11

Bis septem spicae, uaccae totidem faraoni per somnum uisae portendunt dispare formauberis atque famis duo per septennia tempusinstare. Hoc soluit patriarcha interprete christo.

Epilogus Opuscula sua canit Epodis (dimetri trochaici catal. + trim. iambici catal)

Inmolat patri deo | pius fidelis innocens pudicusdona conscientiae | quibus beata mens abundat intus.Alter et pecuniam | recidit, unde uictitent egeni.Nos citos iambicos | sacramus et rotatiles trochaeossanctitatis indigni | nec ad leuamen pauperum potentes.Adprobat tamen deus | pedestre carmen et benignus audit.

12

Fortuna

Prudentium imitantur Orientius, Paulinus Pellensis, Sedulius, Boetius sed numquam fama eius est obscurata, ut In liturgiam influxerit necnon in decorativam artem et in theatrum.

Ars narrandi epica est traditione imbuta, cum martires occurrant, moriantur, iudicentur, patiantur, vel prduelliones agant cum vitiis et virtutibus. Neque anachronistica poemata sunt doctrinalia carmina Apotheosis, Hamartigenia et Contra Symmachum.17

Non sunt umbrae Symmacus et alii adversarii: Ambrosius contra Symmachum pugnavit et contra haereses adhuc florentes, contraque Romana idola.

Prudentius hymnos componit et carmen epicum renovat. Exemplar eius est Ambrosius non Damasus sed Horatius, maximus lyricorum Latinorum (non neglectis Vergilio, Lucano, Statio, Catullo, ceterisque) Reprobandum esse videtur 'novum' opus Marthae A.MALAMUD,18 quae contra omnes apertas sententias et ipsius Prudentii et ceterorum auctorum, autumat devotionem poetae nihil aliud quam hironiam esse, contraque excessus martyrii composuisse carmina, atque inter cetera aberrantes sententias martyrem quoque Agnetem nonnisi mythum esse interpretatur et declarat cum Urbis origine conexum.

17 R.UGLIONE (ed.), Atti del Convegno nazionale di studi su Orazio, Torino 1993, 241-258; H. Breidt, De Aurelio Prudentio Clemente Horatii imitatore, Diss. Heidelbergae 1887; S.M. Hanley, Classical sources of Prudentius, Diss. dact. Cornell Univ. 1959, pp.36-67 e 140-142; I. Opelt, Prudentius und Horaz, in Forschungen zur römischen Literatur. Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von K. Büchner, vol. II, Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 206-213; S. Costanza, Prudenzio, Cath. II 37-56: Orazio, Carm. I 1. Rapporto di due concezioni poetiche, in Letterature comparate. Problemi e metodo. Studi in onore di Ettore Paratore, II, Bologna 1981, pp. 901-918; A. La Penna, Sulla praefatio e l'epilogus di Prudenzio, in Polyanthema. Studi di letteratura cristiana antica offerti a Salvatore Costanza, I, Messina 1989 [Studi Tardoantichi VII], pp. 2l7-225. Per i passi paralleli inoltre Index imitationum ed. J. Bergman (CSEL 61, Vindobonae-Lipsiae 1926, pp. 455-469). M. Lavarenne, Étude sur la langue du poète Prudence, Paris 1933, '' 1712-1721. Apparati ed. M. Lavarenne (I-IV, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1943-1951 [19723, l9612, l9632, l9632). M.P. Cunningham (CC 126, Turnholti 1966); R.HENKE, Studien zum Romanus hymnus des Prudentius, Francoforte 1983.18 M. A.MALAMUD, A Poetics of Transformation. Prudentius and Classical Mythology, Ithaca London 1989.

13

MEROPIUS PONTIUS PAULINUS NOLANUS

Prudentius auctor coaevus exhibetur propter impressionismum et expressionismum suae artis, Paulini autem carmina nimis ordinata, composita, beata sunt. Meropius Pontius Anicius Paulinus (353-431), discipulus et concivis Ausonii unum praecipuum cantavit martyrem Felicem.19

Novimus eum ex Uranii pesbyteri De obitu sancti Paulini, epistulis (Hieronymi, Augustini) Sulpicio Severo, carminibus, potissimum carm. 21, vv.365-487.

Burdigalae [Eburomagi] (Bordeaux) tunc maxima urbs scholis et doctrina in Gallia praestantissima, diviti atque senatoria familia est natus a.353, Ausoniique poetae familiaritate ita usus ut numquam sit oblitus, gratias agens illi et propter humanisticam institutionem et propter auxilium in 'cursum honorum'. Multas habuit possessiones in Aquitania et in Italia.

Ante a.379 praefectus cum esset in Campania, sepulchrum celebratissimum agnovit martyris Felicis, in urbe Nola, quo quotannis in die natali eius conveniebant fideles innumeri.

Paulinus quoque Felicem patronum suum elegit atque constituit domumque revertit a. 383-4 et a Delphino episcopo a.391 cum baptizatus esset, omnia bona pauperibus distribuit, mirantibus amicis et Ausonio.

Barcinone in Hispania presbyer invitus ordinatur et cum uxore Terasia a. 395 Nolam in Campaniam se contulit ad sepulcrum Sancti Felicis, ubi cum amicis 'unitis corpore mente fide' communitatem creavit, ad liturgicam psalmodiam excolendam, cultum s.Felicis, Sacras Scripturas. Episcopus a. 409 creatus est sed nihil novimus de pastorali eius munere. Gregorius Magnus vinctum Vandalos in Africam transtulisse falso tradit. Mortuus est a.431 die 22 mensis iunii, cum caneret: Paravi lucernam Christo meo.

Praeter poematia iuvenilia, quae perierunt, supersunt 51 epistulae20 et 33 carmina (dubia 4 et 5; 32 et 33) simplicitate et pietatis suavitate praedita. Saepius hexametris utitur et distycis, sed sapphica, dimetri et trimetri iambici, polymetra non desunt.

Carmen VI est LAVS SANCTI IOHANNIS Baptistae et biblica paraphrasis in quam confluunt Sacrae Litterae, genus agiographicum, quidam topoi hagiographiae monasticae, laus seu enchomium.

Summe pater rerum caelique aeterna potestas, /cum quo nostra salus, sanctorum gloria, Christe, /spiritus et patri pariter natoque cohaerens, /qui mentes linguasque regis uiresque ministras, /promeruit quas sola fides, cui plena potestas / 5brutis ingenium uocemque infundere mutis, /praesta euangelico ductum de fonte Iohannem /in nostra arenti decurrere carmina riuo. /

Carmina 7, 8, 9 Bibliae paraphrasis fere sunt et versiones poeticae psalmorum 1, 2, 137. Carmen VII Psalmum I declarat (trimetri iambici) Beatus ille qui procul vitam suam Ps. 1: Beatus vir qui non abiitab inpiorum segregarit coetibus in consilio impiorum et in et in via peccantium non manserit via peccatorum non stetit

19 W.EVENEPOEL, La phrase et le vers dans les Carmina de Paulin de Nole: Eulogia, Mél. A.A.R. Bastiaensen, The Hague 1991; P.FABRE, S.Paulin de Nole et l'amitié chrétienne, Paris 1946; Atti Convegno XXXI Cinquantennio della morte di S.Paolino di Nola, Roma 1982; G. MALSBARY, Virgilian Elements of Christian Poetic Language: The Adaptations of Vergil's Aeneid 2,6 by Paulinus of Nola, Paulinus of Pella, and Paulinus of Périgueux: Eulogia, Mélanges A.A.R. Bastiaensen (Instr.Patristica 24), The Hague 1991; W.EVENEPOEL, The Vita Felicis of Paulinus Nolanus: J.H. BROUWERS, Zum Gebrauch der Verben memorare und commemorare bei Ausonius: Eulogia, Mélanges A.A.R. Bastiaensen (Instrumenta Patristica 24), Steenbrugge 1991, 21-28; PAOLINO DI NOLA, I carmi, a cura di A.Ruggiero, Roma 1990. A.F.BASSON, La conversion des genres littéraires païens dans la poésie de Paulin de Nole, Thesis De carmine Ps.Paulini "Sancte Deus lucis lumen concordia rerum", cf M.G.BIANCO, La vita alla luce della sapienza, Roma 1990; M. Skeb, Christo vivere. Studien zum literarischen Christusbild des Paulinus von Nola. 1997.

20 Epistulae, a.394-404, ad 20 destinatarios mittuntur, nec carent numeris et tropis biblicis: 13 ad Sulpicium Severum, 5 ad Delphicum, 2 ad Victricium Rotomagensem (Rouen) episcopum, 4 ad Augustinum, qui cum Hieronymo eas laudat; ad Alipium, ad senatorem Pammachium, ad episcopos Burdigalenses Delphinum et Amandum, ad Iovium. Innumeri sunt loci auctorum paganorum, potissimum in epistula ad Augustinum: "Sapientiam mundi miser hucusque miratus sum, et per inutiles litteras reprobatamque prudentium Deo stultus et mutus fui… Fove igitur et corrobora me in sacris Litteris, et spiritalibus studiis" (ep. 4,2s = AUG., ep. 25,2).

14

nec in cathedra pestilenti sederit, et in cathedra pestilentiae non sedit sed corde toto fixus in legem Dei sed in lege Domini fuit voluntas eiuspraecepta vitae nocte volvit et die et in lege eius meditabitur die ac noctementemque castis institutis excolit.et erit tamquam lignum quod plantatumErit ille ut arbor, quae propinqua flumini est secus decursus aquarumhumore ripae nutriente pascitur quod fructum suum dabit in suoque fructum plena reddet tempore, tempore suo et folium eius non et fronde numquam defluente per virens

decidet et omnia quaecumquesubit perenni vividum lignum coma. fecerit prosperabuntur.

Epistolae metricae sunt Carmen X (332 distichi elegiaci) et XI (68 vv. polymetri) d Ausonium magistrum, XXII ad Iovium de providentia divina contra fatum et fortunam paganorum, XXIV ad Citterium.

Mens eius de litteris paganis nutatur inter negativam positivamque existimationem: in epistula ad Ausonium proclamat conversionem vetare 'vacare vanis otio et negotio - et fabulosis litteris'; ad Iovium autem novas res eandem imponere ut canat 'inspirante Deo'.21

Carmen X

"Quid abdicatas in meam curam, pater, 19redire Musas praecipis?negant Camenis nec patent Apollini dicata Christo pectora. 22fuit ista quondam non ope, sed studio pari /tecum mihi concordia /ciere surdum Delphica Phoebum specu, / 25uocare Musas numina /fandique munus munere indultum dei /petere e nemoribus aut iugis. /nunc alia mentem vis agit, maior Deus 29aliosque mores postulat". 30

Panegyrica sunt 14 carmina natalicia (12-16, 18-21, 23, 26-29) n honorem martyris Felicis, composita a.395-409. In die natali s.Felicis (14 ianuarii) narrantur gesta, miracula, frequentia populi ad sepulcrum.

Novum est genus agiographicum, poeticis formis, 'passionis' seu 'vitae' seu 'miraculorum'.

Carmen XIV

Venit festa dies caelo, celeberrima terris, / 1natalem Felicis agens, qua corpore terris /occidit et Christo superis est natus in astris, /caelestem nanctus sine sanguine martyr honorem. /

Christi mysterium Iudaei non intellexerunt: "Quibus tegebat corda velamen, sacra obnubilans mysteria. At nos, remoto littere velamine, in luce corporis sui enubilatam veritatem cernimus, faciem revelati fide" (C.24, 663-668)

ferte deo, pueri, laudem, pia solvite vota 108et pariter castis date carmina festa choreis,spargite flore solum, praetexite limina sertis, 110purpureum ver spiret hiems, sit floreus annusante diem, sancto cedat natura diei. 112Martyris ad tumulum debes, et terra, coronas.

21 Cf. Ep. 16 ad Iovium: "Esto peripateticus Deo, pythagoreus mundo... Tibi satis sit - inquit - ab illis linguae copiam et oris ornatum quasi quaedam de hostilibus armis spolia cepisse, ut eorum nudus erroribus et vestibus eloquiis fucum illum facundiae, quo decipit vana sapientia, plenis rebus accommodes, ne vacuum figmentorum sed medullatum veritatis corpus exornans, non solis placitura auribus sed et mentibus hominum profutura mediteris". Imago Origenis est. Concilium Carthaginiense a.398 (ISID., Sent.3,13): "Ideo prohibetur Christianis figmenta legere poetarum, quia per oblectamenta inanium fabularum mentem excitant ad incintiva libidinum".

15

CARMEN XVI

Tempora temporibus subeunt, abit et uenit aetas; /cuncta dies trudendo diem fugit et rotat orbem; /omnia praetereunt, sanctorum gloria durat /in Christo, qui cuncta nouat, dum permanet ipse. /

Carmen XVII, De reditu Nicetae (a.400) exemplum praeclarum est generis 'Propempticon', (340 vv., stropha sapphica)

Ì memòr nostrì | remanèque uàdens / 9spìritù praesèns, | animìs uicìssim /Ìnsitùs nostrìs, | trahe fèrque tècum /quòs geris ìn te. /

CARMEN XX

Non adficta canam, licet arte poematis utar, 28historica narrabo fide sine fraude poetae;absit enim famulo Christi mentita profari. 30

Carmen XXI in honorem s.Petri et Pauli est polymetrum (858 vv.)

CARMEN XXV - Epitalamium, ad nuptias celebrandas christianas, contrapositas paganis: sponsus est Iulianus, episcopus Aeclanensis (Aeclanum = Mirabella, prope Beneventum), Augustini adversarius, et sponsa Titia. Distichi elegiaci.

Concordes animae casto sociantur amore, /uirgo puer Christi, uirgo puella dei. /

Christe deus, pariles duc ad tua frena columbas /et moderare leui subdita colla iugo. /

Carmen XXXI est Consolatio ad Pneumatium, qui filium Celsum amiserat octo annos natum (316 Distichi elegiaci)

SEDULIUS (+ c.450)

Olim clarus, ortus in Urbe Roma (ut scribit anonymus auctor Altioris Medii Aevi) et coaevus si non concivis Leonis Magni est Sedulius presbyter, qui probabiliter vixit in Italia et in Graecia et ante a.431 Carmen paschale L.V composuit, hexametris versibus, in honorem Christi, qui a Paulo vocatur Pascha nostrum (1 Cor 5,7) Primus Antiquum cetera Novum Testamentum spectant: 'mirabilia Dei' in Vetere Testamento, vita Iesu ab annunciatione ad 'Pater', Christi miracula, Mysterium paschale (novissimum carmen) Fontes classicos adhibet Vergilium, Ovidium et Lucanum necnon Iuvencum, Prudentium, Paulinum. Quaedam Ausonium et Claudianum resonant. Sequitur evangelium Mathhaei sed alius ac Iuvencus allegoriis abundat atque moralibus sententiis.22

Fluenti calamo ac prolixior quam Iuvencus, Sedulius amplificat textus biblicos ad aedificandos fideles atque Christum Pascha nostrum proponendum. Carmen retractatum est perpolita oratione soluta: Opus paschale, additis locis evangelicis. Hymnum composuit simplicitate et fervore A solis ortus cardine, versibus iambicis, 22 tetrastichis strophis, qui ex parte adhuc adhibetur in Liturgia. Minor est hymnus in Christi laudem, 55 distychis, qui sunt 'versus echoici' seu 'serpentini', in quibus secunda pars pentametri idem est ac prima pars hexametri.

1.A sòlis òrtus càrdinè 2.Beatus auctor saeculi ad usque terrae limitem,servile corpus induit:

Christum canamus principem, ut carne carnem liberans,natum Maria virgine. ne perderet quos condidit.

22 C.SPRINGER, Sedulius' Paschale Carmen. The Gospel as Epic in Late Antiquity, Leyden 1988; S.COSTANZA, Da Giovenco a Sedulio. I proemi degli 'Evangeliorum libri' e del 'Carmen Paschale': CivClCr 6(1985)253-286.

16

3.Castae parentis viscera 4.Domus pudici pectoriscaelestis intrat gratia: templum repente fit Dei:venter puellae baiulat intacta nesciens virum,secreta quae non noverat. concepit alvo filium.5.Enititur puerpera 6.Faeno iacere pertulit:quem Gabriel praedixerat, praesepe non abhorruit:quem ventre matris gestiens, et lacte modico pastus est,baptista clausum senserat. per quem nec ales esurit.7.Gaudet chorus caelestium, [8.Iesu, tibi sit gloria,et angeli canunt Deo, qui natus es de virgine,palamque fit pastoribus cum Patre,_et almo Spiritu,pastor, creator omnium. in sempiterna saecula.]

GAIUS SOLLIUS APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS (430-489)

Lugduni vetere capite trium Galliarum (Belgica Aquitania Celtica) ere a.431 natus est Apolinaris Sidonius, senatoria familia. Litteris imbutus, imperatores ter poeticis panegyricis celebravit.23

Episcopus a.471 renuntiatus Arvernae (Clermont-Ferrand) pastoralibus et civilibus muneribus incubuit, carminaque componendi opus praetermisit omnino. Contra arianum regem visigothum Euricum a.472 restitit, qui tamen a.475 victor evasit ideoque Sedulius in exilium est pulsus usque ad annum 476-7. Obiit a.486 et inter sanctos annumeratur. Concives conatus est defendere a barbarorum furore.More classico composuit 24 Carmina. Panegyrici (3) epitalamii, gratiarum actio (ad Faustum Riez.) carmina (9) d amicum Magnum Felicem (praeteritio declarat quid carmen non sit et de nonnullis scriptoribus Graecis et Latinis) Carmina et epistulae ceteros vincunt auctores, documentum cum sint vitae. Manent Epistulae 147 L.9, imitatus Plinium, quem exemplar habuit et Symmachum. Stilo affectato conscriptae, simplicitate fulgent: "Nuper ego filiusque communis Terentianae Hecyrae sales ruminabamus; studenti assidebam naturae meminens et professionis oblitus quoque absolutius rhythmos comicos incitata docilitate sequeretur, ipse etiam fabulam similis argumenti, id est Epitrepontem Menandri, in manibus habebam" (ep. 4,12,1)

AVITUS Episcopus Viennensis (490-518)

Viennae, in oppido apud Rodanum, exeunte s.V et ineunte VI, non parvam habuit partem Avitus in barbaris Romanisque conciliandis.24

Ad fidem convertit regem Burgundorum Sigismundum atque amicitiam habuit Franchorum regis Clodovei et imperatoris Anastasii, necnon plurimorum senatorum Romanorum. Eius extant epistulae, Homiliae, theologici tractatus atque De virginitate ad sororem Fuscinam dicatum, quod appellat Versus de consolatoria castitatis laude, 666 versibus hexametris exaratum. Maioris momenti sunt Libelli de spiritualis historiae gestis Libri 5 ad sororem monacham dicati versibus hexametris. Classicos sequitur et christianos auctores sermoneque utitur incorrupto et stilo asiano. Ingenio est dotatus, quo historias nonnullas Veteris Testamenti poetice enarrat, renovans Sedulium. Hexametris versibus initium Genesis, diluvium, exodum Hebraeorum, elogium virginitatis et procul dubio etiam Ionae historiam composuit.

Oratione soluta sunt exarata Dialogi cum Gundobado rege vel librorum contra Arrianos reliquiae, et Contra Eutychianam haeresim libri duo, ad Gundobadum missum, cuius filius et successor Sigismundus, Burgundiae rex, ad fidem ab Avito est conversus. Supersunt quoque 86 epistulae ad Gundobadum, ad Sigismundum, ad Anastasium imperatorem, ad Clodoveum Franchorum regem, ad senatores Romanos Faustum et Symmachum missae. Influxus Sidonii Apollinaris stili patet.

Integrae duo Homiliae de Rogationibus et 72 fragmenta 34 aliorum sermonum ministerii eius pastoralis documentum sunt.

23 J.VEREMANS, La prwsance de Virgile dans l'oeuvre de Sidoine Apollinaire, wveque de Clermond-Ferrand: Aevum inter utrumque. Mélanges G.Sanders, The Hague 1991; M.BANNIARD, La rouille et la lime: Sidoine Apollinaire et la langue classique en gaule au Ve si ècle: Mélanges Fontaine; Sidonius Apollinaris and the Fall of Rome AD 407-485, Oxford 1994.

24 P.-A. DEPROOST, La mise en oeuvre du merveilleux épique dans le poème "De diluvio mundi" d'Avit de Vienne: Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum.

17

ARATOR Subdiaconus (s.VI)

Ennodi contubernalis fuit Arator, iuris peritus et subdiaconus Romanus, mythologicorum carminum ut videtur auctor.25

Anno 544 dedicavit papae Virgilio opus Historia apostolica seu De actibus apostolorum, L.2 (hexametri 1076 et 1250) et tres epistulas metricas distichis elegiacis. Sensu allegorico interpretatur potiores eventus. Sequitur Sedulium imprimis et ceteros poetas Romanos. Stilus est incorruptus licet rhetoricus sed non satis vigoris et nervorum habet. Exameter dicitur sacer, quia habetur unitas rhythmica Psalmorum et Canticorum Ieremiae et Iob:

"Hexametris constare sonis in origine linguaecantica Hieremiae Iob quoque dicta ferunt" (Carm. 5,7) Doctus vir Deproost

ratione potissimum philologica sed interdiu etiam theologica conatur definire necessitudines inter aestheticam et nuntium christianum in paraphrasi hexametrica Actuum Apostolorum, quam recitavit in Ecclesia S.Petri in vinculis quattuor diebus.

Gothis ariani invasores textus biblicos evocant.Panegyrici utens interdiu methodo celebrat navitatem Pontificum Romanorum in

defendenda fide orthodoxa una cum cultura Romana, utraque a barbaris praeiudicata. In epistula dedicatoria Petrus et eius successor Vigilius unum esse declaratur; Petrus autem novo titulo ornatur 'primi imperatoris'.

MAGNUS FELIX ENNODIUS Arelatensis (c.473-521) M.CESA (a cura) Ennodio, Vita del beatissimo Epifanio vescovo della Chiesa pavese, Como 1988.

Ennodii humanitas pagana copulatur cum christiana.Aevo Gothico, cum primum Theodoricus componere conatus sit Gothos cum Romanis,

Italia 30 annos pace donata est.Natus probabiliter Arelate a.473-4, annos 20 natus ab episcopo Papiensi [Pavia] Epiphanio

diaconus est ordinatus et Mediolanum remeatus rhetoricam docuit legitimumque Symmachum pontificem contra Laurentium antipapam defendit.

Rhetoricam renovavit atque aestheticam Sidonii Apollinaris.Optime eruditus classicis et christianis auctoribus, episcopus Papiensis est renuntiatus

a.513-4. Ab Orsmisda pontifice bis in Orientem missus est ad Imperatorem Anastasium. Mortuus est a.521.

Supersunt 297 epistulae, 10 Opuscula, inter quae vita Epiphanii [Papiensis], vita Antoni, Panegyricus Theodorici (a.506) Eucharisticum (seu Confessio), Benedictiones cerei, 28 Dictiones (sc.sermones).

Opera magis sapiunt Simmachum et Macrobium quam christianos auctores, potissimum versibus impudicis et mundanis.

Rhetoricam extollit in opere Paraenesis didascalica, quae est exortatio didactica locis christianis et paganis referta, ostentans scientiam Graecarum litterarum. Ita stilus redundat rhetoricis artificiis.

Perrari sunt loci christiani. Documenta historica sunt habenda opera biographica: Panegyricus Theodorici, concilians regem arianum cum catholica ecclesia, Vita Antoni, solitarii in lacu Como et Vita Epiphani, episcopi Papiensis, praedecessoris, quae redolent Vitas Patrum a Ruphino translatas necnon genus 'laudationis funebris'.

Confessio tenuissima repercussio est Confessionum Augustini et vix credi potest eum firmiter speravisse se gloriam poeticam relicturum.

In aetate media tamen gloriam maiorem meritis obtinuit.Carmina L.2 continent hymnos 12, epitaphia, 151 epigrammata, epitalamium (non

christianum matrimonium proponit).

VENANTIUS HONORIUS CLEMENTIANUS FORTUNATUS (530-600c.)

[PRICOCO, Gli scritti agiografici in prosa di Venanzio Fortunato, Treviso 1990; VENANZIO FORTUNATO, Vita dei santi Ilario e Radegonda di Poitiers, a cura di G.Palermo, Roma

25 P.-A.DEPROOST, L'apôtre Pierre dans une épopée du VIe siècle. L'Historia apostolica d'Arator, Paris 1990: philologica et theologica inquisitio de poeta Aratore et de necessitudine aestheticae et christiani nuntii. R.HILLIER, Arator on the Acts of the Apostles. A Baptismal Commentary, Oxford 1995.

18

1989; S.BLOMGREN, De verborum supellectili Venantii Fortunati: Eranos 8 (1985) 3-32; A.QUACQUARELLI, Poesia e retorica in Venanzio Fortunato, in: La poesia tardoantica: tra retorica, teologia e politica. Atti V corso scuola superiore Archeologia e Civiltà medievali, Messina 1984; Venanzio Fortunato tra Italia e Francia, Provincia di Treviso, 1993.

Maximus poeta aevi merovingii reginae Radegundis habendus est poeta curtensis viduae Clotharii, cuius factus est a secretis a.567 in monasterio Pictaviensi. Natus in oppido Valdobbiadene, apud Tarvisium [Treviso] fere a.535, Ravennae, imperii byzantini capitis, rhetoricae studuit. Presbyter est ordinatus instante regina Radegunde, et obiit episcopus post annum 600 Pictavii.

Supersunt Miscellanea L.XI, circiter 300 "nugae" et poematia, more prae'trobador'icorum exarata, Vita s.Martini L.IV (2243 hex: paraphrasis Sulpicii Severi), Vita Sanctae Radegundis (potior), Vitae episcoporum Hilarii Pictaviensis, Marcelli et Germani Parisiensium, Severini Burdigalensis, Paterni Abrinchensis [Avranches], Albini Andegavensis [Angers] et aliorum. Laudibus extolluntur amici, episcopi, domini, urbes, ecclesiae. Sunt epitalamii, consolationes, epitaphii, panegyrici, elegiae, consolationes, hymni, inscriptiones

Maioris momenti sunt hymni liturgici in initio L. II Miscellanea, exarati suscepta reliquia crucis a Radegunda: Pange lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis sex strophis tristichis, tetrametris trochaicis versibus catalecticis, qui sequitur hymnum IX Cathemerinon Prudentii, et Vexilla regis prodeunt, strophis ambrosianis tetrastichis, versibus dimetris iambicis.

Nonnulli auctorem habent carminis Ave maris stella (App.IX: trimetris trochaicis).In Vita Martini (1,14-25) ita de poetis loquitur:

Primus enim docuit distinguens ordine carmen maiestatis opus metri canit arte Iuvencus.Hinc quoque conspicui radiavit lingua Seduli paucaque perstrinxit florente Orientius ore,martyribusque piis sacra haec donaria mittensprudens prudenter Prudentius immolat actus.Stemmate corde fide pollens Paulinus et arte [a Petricordia, Perigueux]versibus explicuit Martini dogma magistri.Sortis apostolicae quae gesta vocantur et actusfacundo eloquio sulcavit vates Arator.Quod sacra explicuit serie genealogus olim,Alcimus egregio digessit acumine praesul". [Avitus ep.Viennensis]

Metra et sermo consonant lyrice: Roma illuminat societatem Merovingiam. Barbarismi autem abundant et metrica aliquantulum claudicat. Latinae linguae accommodat fere 320 verba Graeca.

Nova verba creat: Achilliacus, admodulanter, adstructor, albicomus, amoenifer, anteviare, archisacerdos, cavefacere, consolidator, dispositrix, falsiloquax, florosus, foliatilis, furiatilis, gelifacere, gravefacere, hyacintheus, inadversus, indirecto, insatiatrix, luciferax, margaritatus, millimodus, morbescere, novinupta, omnicolorus, orditura, permedius, plasmabilis, protoplasma, rubricare, sarcofagare, sculpturatus, submontanus, superaccumbere, superinstare, timibundus, tintinnus, undifragus, verbigenus, vicarietas, vulnificare.

BLOSSIUS AEMILIUS DRACONTIUS (s.V)C.MOUSSY et C.CAMUS, Dracontius, Oeuvres t.I (Louanges de Dieu) livre I et II, Paris 1985; A.BISANTI, Rassegna di studi su Draconzio (1959-1982) Palermo 1983; R.MARINO, Concordanze della Orestis Tragoedia di Draconzio. Premessa di G.Aricò, Pisa 1981; D.ROMANO, Studi draconziani, Palermo 1959.

Discidium inter paganam et christianam traditionem luculenter apparet in opere Dracontii, Carthaginiensis, senatorialis italici.

Exeunte s.V vixit, multaque composuit carmina et pagana et christiana: Romulea [Romana carmina] mythologicis referta sunt ornamentis (decem ad nos usque pervenerunt). Epicum poemation Orestis tragoedia (ita aetate media appellatum est) 974 hexametris versibus agit de reditu Agamemnonis eiusque filii Orestis rebus gestis (cum Senecae tragoediis nonnulla habet communia).

19

Capite damnatus a rege vandalo Guntamundo (486-496) quod laudibus extulisset inimicum (Zenonem imperatorem? [474-491]) supplicibus versibus Satisfactio (vel apologia) 53 distichis elegiacis Deum rogat ut ad misericordiam convertat cor regis. Nihil cum impetravisset Laudes Dei L.3 composuit, celebrans Dei operam in creando providendoque et Christi in redimendo, omnesque hortatur ad fidem in Dominum. Gratiam vitae demum impetravit.

Sincerus sensus et lyrica vis Dracontium germanum faciunt poetam iuxta classicam traditionem et christianam: etenim Ovidium Statium, Vergilium, Iuvenalem, Lucretium, Lucanum una cum liturgicis hymnis, Prudentio et Sedulio consociantur.

Satisfactio est quaedam autobiographica confessio: a Guntamondo, rege vandalo, in vincula missus, quia eius inimico regi benedixisset, veniam petit. Sincerus est poeta et sequitur traditionem classicam.

Rex immense deus, cunctorum conditor et spes,quem tremit omne solum, qui regis igne polum,sidera flamma dies quem sol nox luna fatenturauctorem, dominum saecula cuncta probant:principio seu fine carens et temporis expersnescius alterni nec vice functus agis,omnia permutans nullo mutabilis aevo idem semper eris qui es modo vel fueras;nil addit demitque tibi tam longa vetustas:omnia tempus habent, non tibi tempus adest;qui mentes hominum qua vis per singula duciset quocunque iubes dirigis ingenia,qui facis iratus homines contraria vellepropitiusque iubes ut bona cuncta gerant.Quicquid agunt homines, bona, tristia, prospera, prava,hoc fieri ammittunt ira favorque dei:hoc tua verba probant Moseo dicta prophetae,quod duraturus cor Pharaonis eras.Sic mea corda deus, nostro peccante reatutemporis immodici, pellit ad illicita,ut qui facta ducum possem narrare meorum,nominis Asdingui bella triumphigera,unde mihi merces posset cum laude salutismunere regnatis magna venire simul,praemia despicerem tacitis tor regibus almis,ut peterem subito certa pericla miser.Christianum opus est De laudibus Dei quo gratias agit creatori et moderatori mundi atque

redemptori hominis.

VERECUNDUS IUNCENSIS (+ 552)

Episcopus Iuncae in Byzacaena contra decretum Trium Capitulorum vehementer dixit, propterea exilium passus est.

Exaravit opus Commentarii super Cantica Ecclesiastica (9 Veteris Testamenti) quae allegorice interpretatur sequens Augustinum et potissimum Origenem. Dubitatur utrum auctor extet operis Excerpta de gestis Chalcedonensis Concilii. Alia quoque sine fundamento ei tribuuntur. Carmen de satisfactione paenitentiae 212 hexametris sequens Dracontium vitam novam suam enarrat in fide.

Quis mihi maesta dabit lacrimosis imbribus oraflendo cruentare et iugiter lugubre fluentumcontritis sufferre genis oculosque madentespectore conpuncto, rugata fronte rigare?sint epulum optanti mihi desiderabile planctuspalpebrisque cadat dulcis manantibus haustus.Totum luctificis peragam miser actibus aeuum.Perdita sic forsan conpensem tempora uitae. O utinam riuos meruissem flere cruorisalternisque tabes uicibus stillaret ocellus,talibus ut possem lacrimis solamen habere!

20

feruidus obriguit tepidis affectibus ardornec meum conpunctus ualeo formare merorem.Deformem tenebris grauioribus arguo mentem.Tristius afflicto gemitu suspiria fundo,horrificas tremulo contemplans corde gehennas.Cur, anima infelix, sontes te euoluere curasanxius instigat dolor? insanabile uulnusfletibus assiduis luctu comitante solaresubmissisque dei precibus deflecte furorem.Funde pio coram domino tua uiscera fletu.Vtere, dum patiens lugendi tempora confertobductumque nefas gemitu uulgare dolendo.Sed si paulisper uirtus rediuiua precandi sumitur, inclusus mentem dolor urat anhelam.

PAULINUS PETRICORDIENSIS [PÉRIGUEUX] Ep. (s.V)M.I. CAMPANALE, Orandi modulus: semantica delle strutture non narrative della Vita Martini di Paolino di Périgueux: Invig. Lucernis 11, 1989, 136.

Vita sancti Martini L.6 miracula celebrat hexametris Turensis episcopi a. fere 470. Tres libri epitome sunt Sulpicii Severi Vitae, quartus et quintus Dialogi eiusdem, sextus opus quod periit Perpetui, episcopi Turensis. Prolixa paraphrasis pedetemptim fontes sequitur, locis iteratis, addita rima et imitationibus Vergilii, Ovidii, Catulli, Iuvenci, Sedulii. Martinum quoque canit metricis inscriptionibus in novae basilicae dedicatione et enarratione recuperatae salutis nepotis eiusque uxoris. Paraphrasis Bibliorum sacrorum genus 'translationis' inducit,26 quod in carmina vertit prosam hagiographicam, et eorum auctoritas nulla indigens externa confirmatione, cum ex se sit obiectum fidei, poetis perpauca addere sinunt, teste Hieronymo (vir. ill. 84) et Iuvenco, qui quattuor libros exametris versibus paene ad verbum transtulit. Epistulae praefatoriae et prooemia poeticam artem exponunt non autem idem habent momentum. Retractationum finis non est ad amplificandum sed ad stilum corrigendum.27 Perpetuo promittit se 'inhaerere vestigiis et posse aliquid edicere quasi expolitius... cum multo maius sit conperta promere quam prolata transcribere' (Prolog.)

[R.UGLIONE (ed.), Atti del Convegno nazionale di studi su Orazio, Torino 1993, 259-271]La presenza di Orazio nei Padri latiniAmbrogio, Girolamo, Agostino. Note introduttiveMarcello Marin

I due rappresentanti della cultura classica, dominanti nel mondo cristiano antico, sono un poeta, Virgilio, l'autore classico per eccellenza, il summus poeta, sempre presente alla memoria degli autori cristiani, e un prosatore, Cicerone, maestro e modello venerato da tutti i letterati del secolo IV, l'autore che riassume tutta l'eloquenza e la produzione latina in prosa.

Questi due testimoni relegano nell'ombra gli altri poeti e prosatori. Orazio, Lucano, Persio, Ovidio, Catullo, Giovenale, Sallustio, Seneca, Apuleio, citati anch’essi, ma in proporzione molto minore, tanto da rendere credibile l'ipotesi che la loro conoscenza in ambito cristiano non era diretta ma attraverso antologie delle loro opere.

Passiamo dunque ad esaminare la presenza di Orazio nei tre grandi Padri del secolo IV-V: Ambrogio Girolamo Agostino. Ambrogio non cita mai Orazio e lo utilizza in misura modesta e discreta, come d'altronde gli altri autori dassici, sebbene gli indici delle edizioni ambrosiane abbondino di segnalazioni della presenza di Orazio. Si sa tuttavia che apparati e indici delle edizioni patristiche mancano spesso di discrezione, nei due sensi del termine, in quanto non offrono né i criteri di discernimento né la misura che da essi si attenderebbe. Sia per i loci della Scrittura sia per i paralleli con gli altri scriptores, la consultazione di questi indici spesso non consente di distinguere citazioni o allusioni dell'autore cristiano antico e luoghi paralleli individuati e segnalati o proposti dall'editore stesso.

Un esempio, per mostrare in concreto i rischi di una tale operazione, si ha nei riscontri di Cicerone nel De Trinitate agostiniano: Testard catalogava con acribia sette testi ciceroniani, Hagendahl giungeva a sedici, il Corpus Christianorum (Mountain e Glorie) i dedica ben sei

26 Bibelepos: De creationem canonis poetici biblicae poesis: cf R.HERZOG, Bibelepik, I, München 1975.27 : cf W.BERSCHIN, Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, I, Stuttgart 1968, 24-25.

21

pagine, senza fornirne le prove. Appaiono così negli indici passi oraziani utilizzati nelle note di commento per spiegare

moduli espressivi ambrosiani; brani di Orazio che, unitamente ad altre testimonianze antiche, individuano in Ambrogio la ripresa di un proverbio, di una sentenza, e addirittura loci oraziani prospettati come ulteriori luoghi paralleli pur dopo l'individuazione della reale fonte sottesa (Cicerone, Terenzio) Solo in alcune edizioni recenti si avverte che l'indice degli autori antichi comprende le citazioni contenute nel commento, e dunque non necessariamente le dirette fonti ambrosiane.

A volte il riferimento oraziano non si rivela cogente come l'editore crede: ad esempio quod vetus est adsuitur, quod novum cogitur (Interp. Iob I 7,24: ‘ciò che è vecchio si cuce insieme, ciò che è nuovo viene stretto insieme’) iene ricondotto ad Ars poetica 16 che presenta adsuitur pannus, una delle poche attestazioni del verbo adsuo nella latinità classica; ma Ambrogio qui commenta Iob 14,12 cum autem dormierit, non resurget usque dum caelum non adsuatur (‘ma quando si sarà addormentato, non risorgerà finché il cielo non sia cucito insieme’, che intende ‘finché il cielo non sia rinnovato’) la presenza di adsuo è dunque sollecitata dal versetto veterotestamentario, e la iunctura ‘vetus adsuitur’ si può ritenere determinata dal ricordo di un altro versetto, neotestamentario, che dice: nemo assumentum panni rudis assuit vestimento veteri (Mc 2,21 = Mt 9,16: ‘nessuno cuce una toppa di panno grezzo su un vestito vecchio’) sono dunque ripresa di immagini bibliche, senza bisogno di ipotizzare un collegamento all'Ars oraziana.

Tolti i numerosi rimandi superflui o ingiustificati, c’è comunque un gruppo di testimonianze ambrosiane riconducibili al modello oraziano: - coincidenza fraseologica: Luc. 3,18 virum experta = Carm. III 14,11 virum expertae; 7,18 = Carm. I 9,13 fuge quaerere; Interp. Iob I 4,10 = Sat. I 7,7 sermones amari; Ps. 118,6,6 = Epist. II 2,103 suffragia capto; De virginitate 16.98 che definisce teres atque rotundus (‘ben compaginato e ben tornito’) l carro dell'anima = Sat. II 7,86 applicata al sapiente, saldo nel resistere ai propri desideri, nel disprezzare gli onori, e che vive tutto in sé medesimo, come una sfera perfetta: teres atque rotundus, sulla cui superficie levigata non trova appiglio alcun corpo estraneo, e contro cui si scaglia impotente la Fortuna; - consonanze sui temi cari alla diatriba cinico-stoica: avarizia (Ios. 4.20 = Sat. I 1,41-44 e II 3,108 ss.) costruzioni marine (Exam. V 10,27 = Carm. II 18,19-22 e III 1,34-37) commercio marittimo (Exam. IV 6,19 = Carm. I 1,15-18 e Sat. I 1,38-40). Ambrogio condanna, come Orazio, l'avidità di chi accumula beni senza servirsene e vive nel timore di perderli (Ios. 4.20) conservando come sepolto quanto riceve … nelle tane, perché non sa usarne; l'oro può venire estratto dalle miniere, ma nessuno può cavarlo da un avaro (Interp. Iob II 5,22) Condanna ugualmente la perenne ingordigia di coloro che spostano i confini immutabili posti dai padri e aggiungono campo a campo, casa a casa: La terra è diventata insufficiente per gli uomini, si interrano anche i mari; al contrario, per il capriccio di alcuni, si scava la terra, vi si introduce il mare in modo da formare delle isole e possedere lo stretto che le forma’ (Exam. V 10,27). Affinità con Orazio ha pure la polemica contro la cupidigia … che spinge i mercanti (sollicitus mercator, negotiator inpatiens) d affrontare i gravi rischi del mare su malsicuro naviglio - un topos nella letteratura antica (Exam. IV 6,19). Alcuni luoghi assumono l’immagine oraziana per un più ampio sviluppo cristiano: il vaso che, se non è ben pulito, fa inacidire ogni liquido che in esso si versi (Epist. I 2,54) è ripresa e sviluppata da Ambrogio in contesti metaforici: Cristo ha sradicato i vizi e distrutto l'incredulità, ha cancellato ogni traccia di ingiustizia e solo dopo ha instillato la fede e il rigore della continenza, perché la sacra realtà delle virtù non inacidisse nel miscuglio con i vizi che incrostavano il vaso (Ps. 43,10: coacescerent riprende l'oraziano acescit) e il cristiano, mondati gli occhi della mente e gli interiori sguardi dell'anima, pulirà le orecchie ‘per accogliere in un vaso immacolato le limpide acque della Scrittura divina, perché non vi penetri nulla d'infetto’ (Exam. IV 1,1) E’ ridicolo credere di poter tirare dal cielo la luna con formule magiche: il tema, che richiama gli epodi 5 (45-46) 17 (4-5.77-78) ugli incantesimi di Canidia, si allarga nell'equivalenza luna = chiesa. Molti attaccano la chiesa, credendo che possa essere rimossa dalla sua stabile collocazione, ma gli incantesimi dell'arte magica non possono nuocerle: la chiesa ha per incantatore il Signore Gesù, che la rende insensibile ad altri incantatori. L'immagine di Cristo incantatore della chiesa è di forte suggestione e audacia: essa dice la potenza e l'attrattiva che Cristo esercita sulla chiesa, così che nessuna arte riesce a smuoverla e a distrarla dalla fedeltà a lui (Exam. IV 8,33) Nell’omelia De Helia la presenza di Orazio si manifesta con maggiore frequenza, attraverso la ripresa e la rielaborazione di immagini e situazioni poetiche: in 8.24 il servo addetto alla spesa che prima dell'alba fores pulsat alienas richiama Sat. I 1,10 sub galli cantum consultor ostia pulsat; 9.30 = Epist. I 7,28 inter vina; 9.32 nare suspendit riecheggia Sat. I 6,5 e II 8,64; 18.66 choros ducunt = Carm. IV 7,5 s. ducere ... choros; 21.78 = Carm. I 1,4-6; in 21.79 Nemo stadium pulverulentus ingreditur, sed pulverulentum reddunt certamina: ibi colligitur pulvis, ubi palma proponitur.

22

Nemo iterum nitidus coronatur, pulverulentum decet victoria (‘Nessuno entra nello stadio impolverato, ma lottando ci si ricopre di polvere: si raccoglie la polvere dove si concede la palma. Nessuno è coronato dopo essersi ripulito: la vittoria conviene a chi è impolverato’) perano in maniera evidente due intertesti oraziani per l'accostamento pulvis | palma: Carm. I 1,3 s. sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum | collegisse iuvat ed Epist. I 1,50-51 Quis... | magna coronari contemnat Olympia, cui spes, | cui sit condicio dulcis sine pulvere palmae? (‘Chi disprezzerebbe di essere coronato nei grandi giuochi Olimpici, se ha la speranza e la certezza di ottenere senza fatica la palma della vittoria?’) Dall'alloro olimpico al lupanare: Ambrogio ricorda la sententia che Orazio pone in bocca a Catone, per approvare la condotta dei giovani che vanno a sfogarsi al bordello rinunciando a godersi le donne altrui: Sat. I 2,34s huc iuvenes aequum est descendere, non alienas | permolere uxores, e riutilizza la cruda immagine in un consimile contesto anti-adulterio: colui che alienam permolere quaerit uxorem realizza l'amplesso della murena e della vipera, bramato non per diritto di razza, ma per irresistibile impulso di libidine. L'immagine oraziana ha qui un felice innesto nella nota leggenda, molto diffusa nell'antichità, dell'accoppiamento della vipera: e il vescovo trae, dal patrimonio che gli proviene dalla tradizione, lo spunto per un caloroso invito a non cercare il talamo altrui, a non insidiare il matrimonio degli altri (Exam. V 7,19) 2. Girolamo al contrario non offre solo allusioni e arte di sottile intarsio, ma citazioni esplicite ed in gran numero (una settantina di loci, includendo imitazioni ed allusioni) dichiarazioni di approvazione e consenso in merito a specifiche affermazioni di Orazio, espressioni di ammirazione non solo in quanto lyricus, ma anche come vir acutus et doctus, attento osservatore della vita. Dopo Virgilio, Orazio è il poeta più caro a Girolamo, sebbene tutta la sua opera Girolamo ridondi di richiami ad autori pagani. Lo rilevava, con aperta riprensione, Rufino, l'amico di un tempo e poi deciso avversario: Si rilegga ciò che scrive, se vi è una sola pagina della sua produzione che non lo dichiari ancora ciceroniano, nella quale non dica: Sed Tullius noster, sed Flaccus noster, sed Maro; e continuava: Ma in quasi tutte le sue opere ricorre a testimonianze molto più numerose e più abbondanti tratte dagli autori profani che non dai nostri profeti o dagli apostoli. Scrivendo anche a fanciulle e donne, che desiderano e debbono essere edificate solo dalle nostre Scritture, inserisce nel discorso exempla Flacci sui et Tullii vel Maronis . (Apol. adv. Hier. II 7) L'ardore della polemica porta indubbiamente Rufino all'esagerazione, come hanno dimostrato anche indagini statistiche: ma rimane il dato oggettivo della frequenza e dell'ampiezza delle citazioni profane in Girolamo. E Flacco, il nostro Flacco, ha un ruolo di primo piano fra i classici ben noti allo Stridonense.

Si può iniziare l’analisi con l'Ep. 22, la celebre lettera che descrive il cosiddetto sogno di Girolamo’, un testo familiare, scritto nel 384, e indirizzato alla giovane Eustochio, figlia minore della nobile vedova Paola, per incoraggiarla e sostenerla nella scelta della verginità consacrata e per esortarla a perseverare nello studio della Scrittura, abbandonando la lettura dei classici ed i versi dei lirici. Prolungando il tema paolino di 2Cor 6,14-15: ‘Quale rapporto vi può essere fra la luce e le tenebre? Quale accordo fra Cristo e Belial?’, Girolamo sottolinea: ‘Che c'entra Orazio col Salterio, Virgilio col Vangelo, Cicerone con gli apostoli?... Non ci è lecito bere nello stesso tempo al calice di Cristo e a quello del demonio’. A conferma, egli racconta il segreto episodio della sua vita, risalente all'esperienza eremitica nel deserto di Calcide, fra il 375 e il 377, ove si era proposto di praticare la più assoluta ascesi: ma, confessa, non aveva saputo rinunciare ai suoi amati classici, e li continuava a leggere tra veglie e digiuni. Una febbre violenta in breve lo portò in punto di morte e si sentì trasportato davanti al tribunale divino, accusato e fustigato per essere rimasto nel suo intimo più ciceroniano che cristiano (è il tema dell'accusa riproposta da Rufino) Solo per l'intercessione dei presenti ottenne la sospensione della pena, dopo solenne giuramento di non leggere per l'avvenire libri di letteratura pagana (Ep. 22,29-30) In realtà l'effetto dello spavento non durò a lungo: egli continuerà ad attingere largamente ai classici latini, e la stessa Ep. 22 rivela una cospicua presenza di autori pagani, sia pur non espressamente dichiarata. Orazio è presente: - nell'invito a non indossare un vestito troppo elegante, ma neppure sciatto e stravagante, perché la gente che t'incontra per strada non si fermi per segnarti a dito’ (Ep. 22,27 = Carm. IV 3,22) - nella considerazione che solo pochissimi sono privi del difetto di ricercare la lode mentre si fa mostra di schivarla, e che si potrebbe considerare perfetto chi fosse macchiato da rarissimi nei in un bel corpo (Ep. 22,27 = Sat. I 6,65-67) - nella raccomandazione di astenersi dal vino, in quanto vino e giovinezza: doppia fornace di voluttà! Perché aggiungere olio alla fiamma?’ (Ep. 22,8 = Sat. II 3,321) Nella lettera a Pammachio (Ep. 57,5) trattando del metodo ideale per tradurre, Girolamo dichiara di essersi formato alla scuola di Cicerone e di Orazio, Ars poetica 133 s.: nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus | interpres. Argomentando contro Rufino traccia un rapido excursus dei commentari in uso nelle scuole e ricorda di aver letto anche commenti ad Orazio, testi che documentano la cultura e l’educazione scolastica comune ai pagani e ai cristiani: Credo che,

23

fanciullo, avrai letto i commentari di Aspro a Virgilio e a Sallustio, di Vulcazio alle orazioni di Cicerone, di Vittorino ai dialoghi pure di Cicerone e alle commedie di Terenzio, del mio maestro Donato a Virgilio, e di altri ad altri, cioè a Plauto, a Lucrezio, a Flacco, a Persio e a Lucano’ (Apol. c. Ruf. I 16) L'assimilazione di Orazio è tale che Girolamo si sente più volte il continuatore, quasi l'erede del poeta venosino: egli è l'uomo giusto cui si applicano le parole di Carm. III 3,7-8: si fractus illabatur orbis, | impavidum ferient ruinae, ‘se anche il mondo andasse in rovina, i frantumi lo colpiranno, senza che egli dia segno di paura’ (Ep. 6,2) e, concludendo l'epitafio di Paola, anch'egli dichiara orgogliosamente: exegi monumentum aere perennius (Ep. 108,33 = Carm. III 30,1) Di Orazio Girolamo segue il consiglio di rivoltare lo stilo (vertere stilum) attento a scrivere cose che meritino di essere lette più volte (Sat. I 10,72-73) anche se spesso, dettando, è obbligato a buttar giù affrettatamente ciò che gli viene in bocca (Ep. 74,6) L'immagine del vaso di creta che per lungo tempo mantiene il sapore e l'odore del primo contenuto che l'ha impregnato è da Orazio proposta per invitare il giovane Lollio ad accogliere nel cuore puro, finché è fanciullo, buoni consigli e precetti (Epist. I 2,69-70) con la stessa immagine, Girolamo ammonisce Leta ad essere estremamente attenta nell'educazione della piccola Paola, perché è difficile cancellare quei primi insegnamenti ed abitudini di cui le menti ancora vergini si impregnano (Ep. 107,4) o si rivolge a Paolo di Concordia comunicando quale lunga fatica abbia dovuto affrontare per semplificare lo stile della Vita Pauli e per renderla accessibile a coloro che sono privi di cultura (Ep. 10,3)

A Paolino di Nola, che intende dedicarsi allo studio della Scrittura, risponde con entusiasmo, ammonendolo che occorre una guida seria e preparata, perché ormai la scienza delle Scritture è l'attività che ognuno indiscriminatamente rivendica per sé; la vecchia chiacchierona, il vecchio scemo, il sofista verboso, tutti se le accaparrano, le manomettono, le insegnano prima di impararle. Il richiamo alla competenza, il clima di ingiustificata presunzione nelle proprie capacità sono illustrati con i versi oraziani di Epist. II 1,115 ss.: Su cose inerenti alla medicina tocca ai medici darti la speranza, mentre i lavori manuali te li fanno gli operai. Ignoranti e dotti, tutti indistintamente componiamo poemi’ (Ep. 53,7) La polemica antiidolatrica di Isaia (In Es. XII 44,6-20) anno puntuale riscontro con quanto Flaccus scribit in Satyra, deridens simulacra gentium: Ero una volta un tronco di fico, legno inutile, finché l'artigiano, prima incerto se fare di me uno scanno o un Priapo, preferì che io fossi un dio. E da allora fui dio, grande spauracchio dei ladri e degli uccelli’ (Sat I 8,1-4) L'avaro dell’Ecclesiaste (In Eccl. 5, 9-10) mai pago di ricchezze, richiama l’oraziano: semper avarus eget (Ep. I 2,56) il sallustiano: avaritia neque copia neque inopia minuatur (Catil. 11,3) Commentando Is 2,7 osserva: Pulchre autem illud comma versiculi semper avarus eget’ aliis verbis propheta significavit dicens et non est finis thesaurorum eius’; non perché i tesori non abbiano fine, ma perché l'animo di chi li possiede non si sazia (In Es. I 2,7) 3. In Agostino, Orazio è al terzo posto, dopo Virgilio e Terenzio, per numero di citazioni e richiami. Assente nei Dialoghi di Cassiciaco, il Venosino appare per la prima volta nel De musica, dove sono analizzati numerosi metri dei Carmina e degli Epodi: il raffronto con la tradizione grammaticale illustra che si tratta di un caso interessante di trasmissione di materiali legati al mondo della scuola. Tutti gli esempi (cinque dai Carmina, due dagli Epodi) ono utilizzati, dai vari scriptores artis metricae, Cesio Basso, Atilio Fortunaziano, Mario Plozio Sacerdote, Terenziano Mauro, il grammatico Vittorino: spiccano i punti di contatto con Terenziano Mauro (cinque esempi su sette in comune, tre menzioni esplicite) con Vittorino (che, pur se mai citato esplicitamente, presenta gli stessi sette esempi) e si segnala, all'interno del sistematico trattato di musica che occupa i libri dal II al V, questo forte interesse per le leggi della versificazione come momento significativo dell'indagine che, attraverso le leggi dell'armonia che vigono nel creato, permette di riconoscere la verità divina e la mente meravigliosa che ha dettato tali leggi. In seguito i poemi lirici richiamano solo in altri tre casi l'attenzione di Agostino.

Le citazioni dalle Satire e dalle Epistole presentano pure una singolare distribuzione cronologica: tre ricorrono nel De quantitate animae, scritto a Roma nel 387-388, le altre sono del primo libro del De civitate Dei, dopo 25 anni circa. A differenza delle citazioni tratte dai poemi lirici, in quelle ricavate dagli scritti in esametri Orazio è citato per nome, con rilievo per i contenuti delle massime morali di validità universale.

Con l'oraziano sapere aude (Epist. I 2,40) ncoraggia l'amico Evodio a pensare in modo autonomo e indipendente (Quant. an. 23.41) gli ricorda che magnis laudibus solemus extollere, siamo soliti apprezzare assai’ il sapiente (Fortis et in se ipso totus teres atque rotundus: Sat. II 7,86; Quant. an. 16.27) giustifica il ritardo della pubblicazione di due opere, Gen. Iitt. e Trin., con: Angit me plane Horatiana illa sententia: Nescit vox missa reverti’ (Ars 390; Ep. 143,4) applica il detto di Orazio sul vaso di creta che conserverà a lungo il profumo di cui si è imbevuto appena modellato (Ep. I 2,69-70) spiegare perché la scuola dia subito grande importanza a Virgilio: i

24

fanciulli lo leggono appunto perché il grande poeta, assimilato dalle tenere menti, non sia dimenticato con facilità (Civ. 1,3). Agostino accosta due citazioni del poeta venosino, che condannano l'amor laudis e la passione del potere: Epist. I 1,36-37 Laudis amore tumes: sunt certa piacula, quae te | ter pure lecto poterunt recreare libello ‘Se sei gonfio dell'amore della fama, ci sono mezzi di purificazione che potranno rinnovarti; basta che tu legga con animo schietto per tre volte un piccolo libro’, e Carm. II 2,9-12 Latius regnes avidum domando |spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis | Gadibus iungas et uterque Poenus | serviat uni ‘Dominerai su una estensione più vasta se domerai lo spirito avido che se unissi la Libia al territorio di Cadice e se fossero soggetti soltanto a te i Fenici e i Cartaginesi’ (Civ. 5,13) Lo stesso tema si trova in una delle ultime lettere, indirizzata a Dario, inviato dalla corte di Ravenna per negoziare con il generale ribelle Bonifacio. Dalle lodi rivoltegli da Dario Agostino coglie l'occasione per esaminare l'atteggiamento del mondo classico in merito alla lode ed il superamento di tali concezioni da parte del cristianesimo. I personaggi del mondo pagano considerati sono Temistocle (… riporta due aneddoti) Ennio, del quale cita il verso: Omnes mortales sese laudari exoptant (Ann. 560 Vahlen2) e infine Orazio, che rispetto ad Ennio Agostino giudica vigilantior, perché ha saputo vedere la gonfiezza causata dall'amore della lode come il morso di un serpente da curare con formule magiche (Epist. I 1,36-3-7; Ep. 231,3-4) In altri contesti cristianizza Orazio, come quando cita Davo, l'interlocutore di Sat. II 7: amicum mancipium domino ‘schiavo amico del padrone’ (Sat II 7,2-3; Quant. an. 28.55). Agostino sottolinea la consonanza tra Scrittura e Orazio: dalla quaestio di Gen 17,8: perché Dio promette ad Abramo e alla sua discendenza la terra in possesso eterno’ se essa in effetti è data temporaliter? passa all’analoga formulazione oraziana: serviet aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti (Epist. I 10,41) vita e servitù non possono essere eterne; gli scrittori pagani però sono auctores verborum, non rerum vel sententiarum ‘modelli di lingua, non maestri di contenuti’.

Luca (24,28) riferisce che Cristo risorto, dopo aver percorso un tratto di strada con i due discepoli verso Emmaus, finge di dover proseguire: per Agostino non si tratta di finzione, ma di mistero, simulazione che mira a svelare il reale significato, e cosi anche altri passi che parlano di azioni compiute mentre in realtà non sono mai state compiute, solo per esprimere una similitudo e indurre alla vera comprensione, come nella tam prolixa narratio del figliuol prodigo (Lc 15,11-32) E’ un genus fingendi connaturale agli uomini, che attribuiscono fatti e detti umani anche agli animali irrazionali e ad esseri inanimati, per far cogliere più facilmente ciò che intendono comunicare: in Orazio parlano due topi, la donnola e la volpe (Sat. II 6,79 ss. ed Epist. I 7,29ss) nelle fabulae di Esopo tanti animali, nella Sacra Scrittura (Iud 9,8-15) li alberi che cercano di darsi un re (C. mend. 13.28) Queste considerazioni sulla unità di fondo del linguaggio umano porteranno gradatamente la riflessione agostiniana ad elaborare le linee di una retorica universale che si manifesta indifferenziata nel linguaggio della gente comune, nei sacri testi, nei migliori autori della cultura classica: e in questa riflessione sui rapporti fra modi locutionis ed esigenze della comunicazione ad Orazio viene riconosciuto anche uno specifico ruolo di auctor della lingua latina.

25

CARMINA BIBLICA LATINADAN. J. NODES, Doctrine And Exegesis In Biblical Latin Poetry (=ARCA Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs 31) Leeds 1993.

...Among the poetry of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages are works commonly referred to as biblicaí epics. These compositions bear witness to the blending of classical poetic form and Christian religious content, a syncretistic movement which parallels the articulation, begun earlier, of the Christian faith in the language and conceptual framework of classical philosophy. No part of the Bible occupied the biblical epic poets more than the account of the creation and fall. Although the origin of the material world and the deeds of the first humans had been far from the main interest of early Christians, later generations labored to defend a sacred cosmology that attributed to the one Maker a good but mysterious creation. In opposition to both the popular mythology and the many abstract creation theories of Greco-Roman culture, the church fathers and their immediate successors, from East and West, commented extensively on the creation narrative in competent and at times brilliant prose. The long list of Christian prose commentaries on Genesis includes, for example, major works by Origen in the third century, Basil, Ambrose, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom in the fourth, and Augustine in the fourth to fifth. To this list may be added in particuìar the writings of Lactantius (4th c.) Eustathius Of Antioch (1th c.) Nemesius of Emesa (4h c.) Severianus (4th c.) Theodoret of Cyrus (6th c.) Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th c.) and Junilius Africanus (6th c.).An overview of the tradition is provided by F.E. Rohbins The Hexaemeral Literature. A Sludy of the Greek and Latin Commmentaries on Genesis (Chicago 1912) ... manifested in Latin works by Faltonia Betitia Proba (ca 360), "Cyprianus" Gallus poeta (early fifth century), Hilarius poeta (440-461), Claudius Marius Victorius (ca 450), Blossius Aemilius Draeontius (late fifth eentury) and Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus (490-507)...

Modern scholarship

A good deal of scholarship has been devoted to biblieal epic, some of which is related to the whole corpus, some more narrowly to the poems based on creation and fall, which are to be the focus of this book. In the more general field, scholars have accepted the proliferation of biblical epic as an expression of a period of cultural synthesis, but they hold various viewpoints when it comes to defming what influenced the composers and what purposes their writings were meant to serve. For although the biblical poets achieved remarkable proficiency at harmonizing the scriptural narrative with classical diction and poetic form, readers have focused their attention on the distinct elements, philological, literary, and religious, of which the works are comprised. The most readily recognized characteristics, in large measure responsible for the classification of the genre, are the broad scope and elevated diction and subject reminiscent of the classical epics. Scholars have responded by presenting detailed philological studies. According to Reinhart Herzog, philological research since 1960 can be divided into three schools (Reinhart Herzog, Die Bibelepik der lateinischen Spätantike: Formgeschichte einer erbaulichen Gattung, Munich 1975, pp. lxx-lxxii) One focuses on the art of paraphrase and the ways in which the poetry reflects classical literary conventions. The second concentrates more on the development of a distinctly Christian Latin idiom. The third attempts to mediate between the first two interests from the synthetic viewpoint of "Antike" and "Christentum" as equivalent factors. A work such as Charles Witke's Numen Litterarum, for example, working from the perspective of assimilating Christian themes into the classical Roman tradition, shows that a classicizing tendency in Late Antique secular poetry was matched by interest in presenting scriptural narratives in the classical idiom (Charles Witke, Numen Litterarum: The Old and the New in Latin Poetry from Constantine to Gregory the Great, Leiden 1971) Herzog directed his own energies toward demonstrating "the distinguishing factors of the biblical epic genre rather than its relation to the ancient practice of paraphrase." He is motivated by a conviction that the paraphrase theory is largely a product of the treatment of Late Antiquity by classical philologists, whose work has tended to "hide the problem of Christian poetics behind the terrninology of classical rhetoric" (pp. Ixx-lxxi) In his view, the predominance of the paraphrase theory has resulted in the traditional devaluation of the biblical epic. Likewise, the synthetic approach has been characterized by complicated and unbalanced arguments, perhaps since the factors of "Christian" and "classic" themselves are not in harmonious blend in the poetry. Herzog observes that the research generated by this group has resulted more in the production of commentaries on and analyses of individual authors than in a sound description

26

of what constitutes the genre. Therefore, having rejected the theory that the biblical epics derived their motivation chiefly

from the ancient practice of rhetorical paraphrase, as well as the synthetic viewpoint which strives to give equal weight to the pagan and Christian elements, Herzog endeavors to relate the poems to the universal Christian tradition of [religious] didacticism or "edification" (Erbaulichkeit) hrough literature, a process that would include the Gospels and the Letters themselves and extend through many various forms, including the homily, prose commentary, and exhortation. This viewpoint, which invites one to pay greater attention to the presentation of Christian themes, places his own analysis squarely in the second group, in contradistinction to the interest of students of the paraphrase tradition.

Among critics who have examined the poems after Herzog, Michael Roberts has pursued further the relations of the Christian productions with the paraphrase tradition (Michael Roberts, Biblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase, Liverpool 1985) Roberts' detailed study has enabled scholars better to define the use of ancient rhetorical motifs in the construction of the biblical epics. He shows how naturally the Christian poets made use of stylistic elements from the ancient epic literature in which they were schooled, and we benefit from his many identifications of formal elements employed by them. In addition, some minor studies devoted to the synthetic viewpoint have examined ways in which biblical epic poets used classical allusions to inform their interpretation of scriptural events (ex.c. Gerald Malsbary, "Epic Exegesis and the Use of Vergil in the Early Biblical Poets," Florilegium 7 (1985) 55-83, which presents lines from biblical epics as examples of the way in which Virgilian language is seen to accord perfectly with Christian exegesis.

The discussions center on the following Virgilian phrases: insignem pietate virum (a man distinguished by loyalty) appearing in Cyprianus' Heptateuch as insignem pietate deum (God distinguished by loyalty) This phrase informs the description of God's mercy in his dealing with the Israelites under Moses. Also, Virgil's address to Dido as she watches the Trojans preparing for departure: Quis tibi tum, Dido. cernenti talia sensus... (What were your feelings then, Dido, on seeing this ...) is adapted in Sedulius' Carmen paschale to Herod. Lastly, Virgilian echoes in Claudius Marius Victonus' depiction of the flood in his poem entitled Alethia are shown to "contribute to the epic realization of the scriptural narrative." The discussion ends with the statement that the examples were intended "to show how a cultural synthesis was accomplished by 'mere paraphrasing' as well as by more developed methods"(p. 77) hile there is little that is novel in the claim that the poets made use of classical allusions, the examples in this study are telling and the point deserves reiteration) Turning to the scholarship on the creation poetry in particular, it is not surprising that some literary-historical investigation of this genre has been conducted by scholars interested in the background to the "Paradise Lost" tradition culminating in Milton (In surveying these forerunners to Milton's monumental work on the theme of man's creation and fall, Watson Kirkconnell, for example, listed the biblical epics among works ranging from some of the earliest known redactions of the biblical narrative to post-Renaissance poetry and drama (Watson Kirkconnell, The Celestial Cycle [Toronto, 1952])

He did not address the prose tradition of scriptural exegesis however, and made no reference to the standard Jewish and Christian exegeticai traditions that influenced the biblical epic poets. This is not a fault of the anthology, since it sets out to survey literary rather than theological innuences on Paradise Lost) Of special note in this category is the work of J.M. Evans, who discusses both prose and verse treatments of the Genesis account from Jewish, Christian, and vernacular sources (J.M. Evans, Paradise Lost and the Cenesis Tradition (Oxford, 1968). An earlier work that is still useful in reviewing the tradition is Grant McColley, ParadiseLost:An Accounr of Its Crowth and Major Origins, with a Discussion of Milton's Use of Sources and Literary Patterns (Chicago, 1940) Evans devotes a chapter of his survey to the Latin poems, which he labels "neo-classical" treatments, alluding to the influence of Roman epic poetry, especially the Aeneid, on the vocabulary and style of the late antique and early medieval versifications. He is aware of the genre's theological dimension, in speculating, for example, on the reasons why so many works on the theme of Genesis were composed in southern Gaul. His hypothesis is rooted in the history of theology. The epics based on Genesis of Hilarius. the poet Cyprianus, Victorius, and Avitus could, in his view. have been prompted by the theological debates we know as the Semipelagian controversy. Evans did not investigate this possibility, however, being content to point the way for others, as his purposes were "not primarily doctrinal." (Ibid. p. 114) He therefore left still undefined the precise relationship of those poems to their prose counterparts.

It has been left to another group to respond principally to interpretive elements produced within the tradition of serious apologetic and exegetical literature. In the nineteenth century

27

Stanislas Gamber, concentrating on the Latin poetic treatments of Genesis, argued that their purpose was in "education and apostleship," to provide wholesome supplements to the body of pagan literature which continued to be cherished. It is incorrect, he argued, to think of their purpose as an attempt to replace pagan poetry, as there was no official prohibition of pagan literature by the Church. Those who did speak out totally against non-Christtan arts and letters were voicing individual opinions (Slanislas Gamber, Le Livre de la Cenèse dans la poésie latine au Ve siècle (Paris, 1899 repr. Geneva, 1077). Although not a universal prohibition, the statuta ecclesiae antiqua (5th c.) rges Catholic bishops not to read pagan works. See Pierre Riché, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West: Sixth through Eighth Centuries, trans. J. Contreni (Columbia, South Carolina, 1976) pp. 97-8). As a means of explaining the Church's attitude, Gamber preferred to cite Jerome's analogy of the Israelites' taking the treasure of the Egyptians during the Exodus:

Quid ergo mirum, si et ego sapientiam saecularem propter eíoquii venustatem et membrorum pulchritudinem, de ancilla atque captiva Israelitidem facere cupio? [Why, therefore, is it strange if I, too, because of the grace of her discourse and the beauty of her features, want to transform secular wisdom from a servant and a captive into an Israelite? (Jerome, Epistola ad Magn., 83. Gamber (pp. 43-4) lso cites Basil and Cassiodorus. For the same analogy see Augustine Confessions. 7.9) In light of this and similar analogies in the Christian fathers, Gamber saw the relation of biblical epic to the non-Christian epic literature as one of mutual coexistence. The Christian epics were "to take their place in the schools, not to the exclusion, but alongside..." ( Ibid. p. 44) The intention may, however, have been more militantly didactic among the Christian poets. More than the philosophical treatises of antiquity, "the epic style of Virgil, by common consent the noblest poetic expression of classical Latin literature, was the vehicle for just such pre-Christian thought as the Church sought to displace." (Leonard H. Frey, "The Rhetoric of Latin Christian Epic Poetry," Duquesne Studies, Annuale Mediaevale 2 (1961) 16) Retaining a desirable literary form and applying it to a more valuable content was one way to help solve a pedagogical problem. Investigations into this propagandizing aspect of biblical poetry, however, have not kept pace with investigation into other areas. Verbal parallels and literary allusions to classical literature, as well as rhetorical motifs, have shone brilliantly, while the exegetical patterns, not so eagerly sought out, have not so frequently been perceived. This has led to an unbalanced perception of the genre. The biblical epic poets were steeped in the literary and rhetorical traditions of pagan antiquity and thus emulated the best models which that culture offered. But they were also participants in an age of intense theological inquiry and doctrinal formation affecting all levels of society, especially as fundamental truths were seen to reside in the very scriptural texts they chose to represent in poetry.

The importance of identifying exegetical motifs in the Latin biblical poetry is suggested by the act of versification itself. The demands of poetic form require a writer to alter the vocabulary and syntax of the original, and such alteration will require choices not only of words but of theme and scope as well. Decisions about the meaning of Scripture in turn involve fundamental points of doctrine. Several poets therefore acknowledged that their work entailed doctrinal positioning, as is evidenced by their expressed concern for the orthodoxy of the compositions (Gamher, Le Livre de la Genèse, pp. 55-60) Moreover, in their use of classical epic diction to paraphrase and comment on this perceived truth, biblical epic poets gave new meanings to the words and phrases they appropriated, transforming the language of Roman epic into the language of Christian anticipation. We witness this, for example, in Victorius' transformation of Virgil's references to the kingdom of Latium into references to baptism, salvation, and the kingdom of heaven. In a forward-looking reference to man's triumphant reconciliation with God effected by the savior, placed at the head of his account of the fall, the poet gives Adam, father of the race, agent of man's demise and now participant in man's triumph, a fully Christian, eschatological description in Virgilian terms:

patria nunc laetus ab auladespicit aetherios axes et sidera calcatdispositosque uocat uentura in regna ministros,quos iterum formauit aquis docuitque renasci,quae totum genuit patri, sapientia uerbi.

Now the happy man looks down at the poles of the sky from his ancestral court and treads upon the stars. And into the future kingdom he calls the arrayed ranks of servants whom the wisdom of the Word, begetter of all for the Father, formed anew with waters and taught to be reborn (Claudius Marius Victorius, Alethia, Precatio 96-100).

This passage uses formal epic diction (P.Hovingh, CCL 128, notes the allusions: 96

28

patria... ab aula Sen. Octavia, 291; 97 aetherios axes Virg. Aen., 8.28; 98 uocat uentura in regna Virg. Aen., 7.256, 7.578, 3.185) but its context is thoroughly transformed to the Christian perspective). Although the biblical epic poets were capable of drawing upon the powerful emotional force and moral lessons contained in pagan epic and did so when these agreed with their own scriptural material, they could and did just as well ignore the context of the linguistic model and use the literary language only as a vehicle for the expression of the new religious truths. Thus, while Victorius' reference to the rebirth of baptism contains the elements of epic diction, epic dignity of characterization, and specific theological commentary, it would be misleading to emphasize the first two over the third. Our perception of the purposes of the biblical epics may be distorted by the relative scarcity of work relating the poems to the tradition of scriptural exegesis. Much that is still conjecture regarding both the borrowings by the poets from the prose commentators on the Bible and what is unique to them needs to be supported with the kind of evidence that can only be obtained by detailed comparison of the works with one another as well as with the prose tradition of scriptural exegesis (The most detailed work in this area has been conducted by recent editors with respect to portions of individual biblical epics. Theological subjects occupy a significant position, for example, in discussions of the first 170 lines of Victorius' Alethia and the first two books of Dracontius' Laudes Dei. See P. Hovingh, C.M. Victorius Alethia. La Prière, et les vers 1-170 du livre I avec introduction. traduction, et commentaire (Groningen, 1955) and C. Camus, ed., Dracontius. Laudes Dei I et 11 (Paris, 1985)

A need for further work in this area was expressed by Judith McClure, who wrote of the benefits that can be derived from a detailed analysis of the genre with reference to the exegetical tradition: While it is not difficult to dispose of some of the most frequent general interpretations relating to the purposes of the Christian biblical epic from the fourth to the sixth centuries, [namely that the works are paraphrases designed to improve the biblical text or that they belong categorically to the writings of Christian apologetic] it is impossible to replace them with ar entirely satisfactory alternative approach... The debts of even the principal paraphrases to contemporary bibíical exegesis have never been studied in any detail. Various minor attempts have been made by editors and commentators to indicate borrowings, but it must be stated firmly that the problems will never be solved by adducing a few parallel passages. What is needed is the investigation of a given work in relation to the entire contemporary tradition of Latin biblical exegesis of the text in question.[J.McClure, Biblical Epic and Its Audience in Late Antiquity: Papers of the Liverpool Latin Seminar 3(1981) 309-10. This need has not changed since the time of Gamber, who, in his own contribution to biblical epic scholarship, acknowledged that his work was essentially a literary analysis: "Outreque l'analyse détaillé des poèmes génésiaques nous permettra d'en signaler un certain nombre, nous ne devons pas oublier qu'un examen de ce genre, étant plutôt d'ordre théologique, ne saurait être à sa place, du moins avec les développements qu'il comporte, dans une étude d'histoire littéraire telleque nous nous sommes proposé de l'écrire ici" (p. 68) The same year I completed my doctoral dissertation, Avitus of Vienne's Spiritual History: Its Theme and Doctrinal lmplications, University of Toronto 1981, which presented the kind of detailed analysis for which McClure appealed].

McClure is right in maintaining that, in order to develop a more accurate understanding of the poets' infentions in transforming biblical narrative into the idiom and style of classical epic, the works must be compared with the prose commentaries, theologically, in the way that they have been related to the classical literary tradition, philologically [After McClure, a statement of the importance of studies devoted to the relation of the biblical epics to the exegetical tradition has been made by Wilhelm Ehlers , "Bibelszenen in epischer Gestalt: Ein Beitrag zu Alcimus Avitus", Vigiliae Christianae 39 (1985) 353-69: "Die reizvolle Frage, wie sich seine versionen in die Geschichte antiker sibelexegese einordnen, sollte von Kundigeren systematisch untersucht werden," pp. 353-4. Most recently, C. Camus' edition of Dracontius' Laudes Dei, Books 1 and 2, pays ample attention to theological themes and exegetical traditions in that work. C. Springer has made an examination of the NT poet Sedulius along these iines. see bibliography]. Although some work in this specific area has been reflected in articles such as F. Capponi's I limiti didascalici nella poesia di A.E. Avito (Latomus 26 (1967) 51-4) Capponi, although examining the question, takes an almost entirely negative view regarding the didactic or theological intention of Avitus' epic, and W. Ehlers "Bibelszenen in epischer Gestalt", important questions remain regarding the degree and method of didacticism and the relation of the poems to the prose tradition of scriptural exegesis.

The present work therefore proposes a contribution to this area of investigation by considering the presence in biblical epic poetry of exegetical traditions related to the two most

29

basic Christian doctrines: the doctrine of God (involving trinitarian concepts and Christology) nd the doctrine of the created universe. It will focus on six epics from Late Antiquity which feature the biblical account of creation, the section of the Bible most often chosen for versification in the genre: Proba's Cento, Cyprianus' Heptateuch, Ps. Hilarius' Metrum in Cenesim, Victorius' Alethia, Dracontius' Laudes Dei, and Avitus' De spiritalis historiae gestis [Witke (Numen Litterarum, p. 146) commenting on the predominance of biblical epic touching the creation myth, writes, "It is significant to see both how more information was disseminated about Judaic events than Christian, and how few poets, only two, present the Resurrection, and only one, Juvencus, the entire life of Christ following the scope of the Gospels." Seven of the ten epic poems Witke studied (Alethia, carmen de providentia divina, Laudes Dei, De spiritalis historiae gestis, Heptateuch, Metrum in Genesim, and Proba's Cento) reat the creation myth, in which Witke concentrated on the poetics in the various accounts of the creation of Man. The present study omits only the Carmen de providentia divina since that poem does not feature the creation account]. Such an examination is needed to show that, just as the epic verse medium was used to convey biblical narratives, Jewish and Christian exegetical traditions were used to interpret them. The intent is therefore to examine how the poets functioned as exegetes of the Judeo-Christian scriptures rather than as appropriators of those scriptures to the classical literary tradition.

Avowed aims of the poets

Before moving to a detailed discussion of the two areas of exegesis proposed above, it is worth looking at what direct information the biblical epic poets give about their aims. Most biblical epic poets refer first-hand to their compositions. The references are preserved chiefly in prefaces or invocations, but Avitus also mentions his poetry in external documents. Two themes are recurrent, an interest in teaching, and a desire to remain true to Christian orthodoxy while repudiating pagan falsehood. Both themes have been amply noted by critics, but there remains disagreement over specifics. [Chapters two and three of Gamber's study, devoted to the reasons for the composition of the Latin poetry addressing the themes of Genesis, make use of original testimonies. He asks whether the authors' concerns were primarily literary or whether their works were products of a "higher" ambition, namely to contribute to the efforts of Christian apologists and to serve the cause of religion, thereby going beyond the causes of belles /ettres and their own fame. In pointing out that "almost all [the Genesis poets] have taken care to have readers understand their purpose," he makes the following observations: The author of the Metrum in Genesim tells readers that the work was commissioned by Pope Leo and that despite a lack of talent, the poet decided to compose a work celebrating the kindness of the Almighty (Met. in Gen. 1-8)Dracontius also tells his readers that his poem is intended to celebrate divinepietas, evidenced by the poet's understanding that God does not wish to destroy but to save the human race (De laud. Dei, 1-2; 113-15) --Avitus too speaks of his poem as a celebration but in addition acknowledges its potential for the education of children (Epist. 38 ad Euphrasium [in MPL]) Claudius Marius Victorius explicitly states that the purpose of his poem is the instruction of youth (Alethia, Precatio, 104-05) His poem presents many lessons derived from the Scriptures. Gamber seems to think that the work was rntended for use in the school where Victorius taught. He also suggests that the reason for Victorius' exclusion of certain sections of Genesis, such as the account of the destruction of Sodom, was that they were perceived as either confusing or otherwise inappropriate for young minds. Even in the case of the author of De Sodoma, who did make that episode the subject of a single poem, the intention was, according to Gamber, to teach a moral lesson about the evils of Sodom.The author of the Genesis poem attributed to Cyprianus "must have been composing a compendium of the Bible for the use of young Christians of his time" (p. 34)Similarly, Gamber sees the work of the poets who chose to versify the New Testament as also having "apostolic work" as the primary purpose (p. 34) Sedulius is in fact his principal spokesman for the versifiers of either testament (p. 35) He summarizes the various testimonies by suggesting that the poets were interested in causing the truths contained in the Bible to penetrate more deeply and more easily into the minds of readers. "Thus poetry becomes, through the translators of and commentators on Genesis, the helper of Christian education" (p. 34)

a) Didactic Purpose

Claudius Marius Victorius' indication of a didactic interest in his fifth century Genesis poem,

30

Alethia, provides a case in point. In his invocation Victorius prays for inspiration and knowledge while he prepares "to form tender minds and hearts for the true path of virtue in their boyish years." (Precatio, 104-05) This has led scholars to accept in general terms the idea that the Alethia is a pedagogical tool prepared, as A. Hudson-Williams put it, "with the expressed hope of improving the minds of the young." (A. Hudson-Williams, "Notes on Claudius Marius Victor," Classical Quarterly 14 (1964) 296. See also Roberts, Biblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase, p. 97) But to moré precise questions such as "What did the poem propose to teach to its original audiences?" and "How did it intend to teach it?" answers promoting different aspects of the poem have been proposed. Was it intended to provide composer and audience with experience in Latin grammar, syntax, and poetic rhetoric through the paraphrasing of edifying scriptural material? This is almost surely the case, especially in light of the general educational procedure in Late Antiquity, the tradition which holds that our Victorius was a teacher of rhetoric, and the poem's mannered style. But to what degree did Victorius' didactic intentions include the imparting of specific lessons in Christian doctrine, using epic diction as a means to the more compelling end of presenting biblical text and commentary in a form that is esthetically effective? The intention to impart true doctrine is strongly suggested by his avowal to subordinate the lex metri to the lex fidei and his inclusion of numerous exegetical digressions [Victorius ends his invocafion with this point (si lege metri quicquam peccauerit ordo,/ peccarit sermo improprius sensusque uacillans-/ incauto passim liceat decurrere uersu-/ nec fidei hinc ullum subeat mensura periclum. Precatio, 119-22) It is customary in the prefaces to defend the lex fidei against the lex metri, but custom does not necessarily render the avowal meaningless. Cf. Avitus' prologue to De spiritalis historiae gestis]. If both motives were in the mind of the poet, which did he consider more important?Scholars' approaches to these questions are influenced, as one might expect, by the various academic fields from which they come. Roberts, for example, notes Victorius' description of the poem as a work of instruction for the young and acknowledges the presence of exegetical material, but maintains that Victorius' concept was rhetorical rather than theological [AIthough interpretative expansions figure largely in the Alethia and give it its distinctive character, the poet himself thinks of his work as a biblical paraphrase, not a metrical commentary. Biblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase, p. 98]. To support this distinction, Roberts places stress upon something the poet says later in the work:

hinc iam fas mihi sit quaedam praestringere, quaedamsollicito trepidum penitus transmittere cursu,mutata quaedam serie transmissa referre.

Henceforward there are some things I must abbreviate, some I must fearfully quite pass over in my anxious progress, and some I must relate in an altered sequence. (1.144 6, Roberts' translation)

But this statement is merely an admission that in the course of the poem some sections of Scripture will receive more attention than others, which would apply to virtually all exegetical works. Roberts correctly relates Victorius' interest in narrative dimension and order to standard rhetorical practices in classical composition, but it does not follow necessarily that Victorius "thinks of his work as a biblical paraphrase" rather than as a "paraphrase and commentary," or even "exegetical epic." Motives that would fit the latter descriptions are implied in what Victorius says elsewhere in the invocation. The two lines "while we prepare to form tender minds and hearts for the true path of virtue in their boyish years" are part of his prayer for knowledge (da nosse precanti) f the sacred mysteries concealed in the books of Moses. The invocation containing this reference to the education of the young refers first to mysteries of a cosmological nature and ends with a request for what can be described as true doctrine derived from an inspired exegesis of the Mosaic books, especially what they reveal about the origin of man and the universe, man's fall, and the beginnings of the process of reconciliation with his creator: [da nosse precanti]...

inclita legiferi quod pandunt scrinia Moysis,quae sit origo poli uel quae primordia mundi arcanamque fidem qui toto excusserit auctapestis et in mores penitus descenderit errorquaue iterum redeat uerum ritusque profanospellat et aeternae reserat sacra mystica uitae.

Grant to the one praying to know what the glorious writings of Moses the lawgiver reveal: what the origin of the heavens is, or the commencement of world, and how the plague, having arisen, totally shook the secret trust, and error, as a disease, descended deeply into our character, and in

31

what way truth may return again and drive off profane ceremonies and reopen the sacred mysteries of life eternal (Precalio, 106-11)

The force of this passage, particularly the repudiation of error, suggests that the composer of the Alethia conceived of his work principally as an exegetical didactic poem, presenting Reality or Truth (alethia) n a literary form employed to make the lessons pleasant and memorable in the natural close-reading format of the ancient grammar school. In light of Victorius' complete invocation and the frequency of first-hand commentary in the poem, it may be necessary to modify one's sense of the function of paraphrase in this work.Similar first-hand testimony in Proba's Virgilian cento has been used to determine her purpose. As with Victorius' epic, critics connect the cento with education. A recent work, for example, suggests that "Proba's cento may have been a response both to Julian's decree and to the larger question of education for Christian children. By piecing together lines of Virgil so that they sang of Christ rather than of arms, horses, and wars, Proba provided a pedagogic tool for such young people." [E. Clark and D.Hatch, The Golden Bough. The Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba, Chico, Ca. 1981, p. 100) The intention of Proba's selection and handling of Genesis, which comprises half the poem, is hypothesized to be to teach about physical nature: It was not theological or philosophical concerns that, first and foremost, informed Prsba's treatment of Genesis 1-2, but literary ones. Quite simply, Proba, as an admirer of Virgil, stands in the tradition of Greek and Latin poets who are interested in nature and natural phenomena... We posit, then, that Proba, a Christian poet, follows in the wake of pagan predecessors preoccupied with the beauty, even the grandeur, of the universe (Ibid., p. 139) In addition to the perceived influence of Virgil's many descriptions of physical nature, it was largely Proba's first-hand testimony contained in an invocation which led to this hypothesis:

nunc, deus omnipotens, sacrum, precor, accipe carmenaeternique tui septemplicis ora resoluespiritus atque mei resera penetralia cordis,arcana ut possim uatis Proba cuncta referre...nam memini ueterum uoluens monumenta uirorumMusaeum ante omnes uestrum cecinisse per orbemquae sint, quae fuerint, quae mox uentura trahantur...omnia temptanti potior sententia uisa estpandere res altas terra et caligine mersas.

Now, almighty God, I pray, receive this sacred poem and loosen the mouth of your sevenfold, eternal spirit and reveal the inner regions of my heart, so that I, Proba, prophetess, may tell all mysteries ... For 1, turning over in my mind the remembrances of men of old, remember that Musaeus had sung throughout your world before all others what are, what were, what are in the process of coming to be ... To me, trying everything, it seemed a better decision to reveal profound matters submerged in earth and in darkness [Cento, 9-12, 35-7, 50-51. It should be noted, incidentally, that the last lines of this passage are derived from Aen. 6.267. But in Virgil's poem the entreaty for such secret knowledge is made not by the poet but by the Sybil. Proba's shift of emphasis is strong testimony to her seriousness of purpose...

Clark and Hatch recall several points of theological significance which the Genesis account held for earlier Christian teachers. First is the debate with Gnosticism in the century before Proba, in which the biblical creation account was a principal weapon in the refutation of Gnostic claims of the evil origin of matter [Ibid., pp. 137-9. For this observation Clark and Hatch echo Gamber, who posited an interest in combatting doctrinal error as a reason why so many of the biblical epic poets focused on Genesis. Cf. Le Livre de la Genèse, p. 60]. Orthodox Christians combatted that notion with a position that the universe was the product of a benevolent, almighty creator. Second, the creation account was important in defending the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Jewish and Christian exegetes alike who subscribed to this doctrine had made the connection between the Creator's drawing Adam from the mud of the earth and his reclamation of the dead from their graves [Clark and Hatch (p. 215 n. 5) ite Athenagoras, Irenaeus, and Minucius Felix, to which can be added the interpretation of Augustine, De civ. Dei, 21.7].

Thirdly, early Christians needed the Genesis narrative to address various cosmologies of the pagan philosophical schools, particularly the heirs to Epicurean viewpoints, and even Platonic ones when they contravened the JudeoChristian creation account [The Golden Bough, The Oaken Cross, pp. 138 ff. Cf. Gamber, Le Livre de la Genèse, pp. 48-51. Gamber also posited the need to provide a counterpart to the celebration of heroes found in pagan epic. The fourth and fifth

32

centuries witnessed a revival of pagan epic in the persons of Claudian in Latin and Quintus of Smyrna Nonnus, Coluthos, and Musaeus in Greek (hence the competitive reference to Musaeus in Proba). According to Gamber, this re-emergence of pagan epic in Late Antiquity represents an attempt on the part of ancient poetry to recapture, before dying, some of its former glory].

However, when Clark and Hatch consider whether Proba herself was motivated mainly by this tradition, they discount the full implications of her prayer for the ability to reveal all mysteries (cuncta arcana) This results in an under-emphasis on theological or philosophical motivation, for despite Proba's reference to mysteries and their revelation by Moses, they refuse to include her among Christian writers whose interests in Genesis were primarily theological. But the second half of the cento does not support so restricted an analysis of the spare original testimony. The cuncta arcana to which the poet refers, and which are revealed in the second part of the poem, are not, first and foremost, natural phenomena but theological relationships between the Creation and Fall and Christ's saving work, a theme which Clark and Hatch eventually acknowledge:

Her paralleling of Old Testament and New Testament events and persons is not merely a literary device; it has deeper religious meaning. To be sure, some of these parallels are of little importance (as, for instance, when Easter morning, the "third day," dawns with the twittering of birds, just as the third day of creation was ushered in with cooing doves and piping ravens.) thers, however, concern themes deemed vitally significant by many writers in the early church: Adam is contrasted with Jesus in the cento; the tempation of Eve finds its counterpart in the temptation of Jesus; the flood has analogies with the apocalypse; the infancy of Jesus resembles that of Moses; and Eden, man's first paradise, is likened to the Christian heaven [The Golden Bough, The Oaken Cross, p. 164. On the typological importance of Genesis for the prose exegetes, and therefore potentially for the Genesis poets as well see Gamber, Le Livre de la Genèse, p. 46].

In light of this typological emphasis, perhaps Proba's exegetical and didactic interests should be foregrounded, with her interest in nature and natural phenomena taking a subordinate position. [This is also the viewpoint of Robert Rowland, Jr.: "In their [Clark and Hatch's] account of Proba's version of Gen. 1:1-2:6 ... they canvass three possible reasons for the poetess' preoccupation, rejecting theological and philosophical concems in favor of literary ones... Given the cultural and intellectual milieu whence she sprung, this may be too simple, and a reading of Servius' and Macrobius' comments on Virgil (particularly on the passages used by Proba) ight suggest the more plausible hypothesis that Proba was quietly and unobtrusively refuting contemporary pagan interpretations of Virgil," Review of The Golden Bough. The Oaken Cross, in The Second Cenrury 3 (1983) 105]. Natural description is indeed an integral part of the poem, but it has a doctrinal dimension of its own which ultimately comes to be seen as the cosmic backdrop of a skilfully constructed demonstration of salvation history.A basic didactic purpose has also been seen in De spiritalis historiae gestis of Avitus of Vienne, and once again original testimony has figured in the speculation on the specific nature of the education. Gamber, for example, interpreted a reference in one of Avitus' letters as evidence that the Bishop of Vienne had elementary education in mind:Quocirca volumen per vos temperatius ingerendum si supradictus frater vel infantibus legi debere censuerit, possum per quaecumque magnificentiae suae scripta cognoscere. Si autem post flumina fontium paternorum, ut potius reor, paupettatem venae tenuissimo rore manantem abiecerit sine verecundia mea suaque impietate sufficiet me reprehensionis suae censuram hinc tantummodo intellexisse, si taceat.Wherefore I am able to know through some written response of his magnificence whether our aforementioned brother [Apollinaris, son of Apollinaris Sidonius] be of the opinion that my volume, which you in a judicious way will have forced him [Sidonius] to read, ought to be read even to children. But if, as I rather suppose, after the torrents from his father's springs he should reject the meager drips trickling from [my] vein, his silence alone will be enough to reveal to me his negative opinion, without either my feeling shame or him being a disloyal friend [Avitus, Epist. 38 ad Euphrasium. In discussing Victorius' Alethia directly after quoting this verse from Avitus, Gamber remarks "Le désir d'être utile à la jeunesse et le d'instruire sous une forme agréable, des enseignements contenus dans les livres saints, est aussi nenement indiqué par cl. Victor" (p. 33)

The reference to children, however, is made derogatorily, and it seems more reasonable to argue that Avitus was hoping that the poem might be found worthwhile for mature readers at the educational level of Sidonius. We learn from another letter, moreover, that Apollinaris did consider the poem worthwhile, even though he had read an uncorrected copy. Avitus expresses joy

33

over the good reception of his poem and now, with polite, formal humility, claims to have "amused himself with de spiritalis historiae gestis in the poetic manner among his tasks of writing serious and more urgent works." [... inter occupationes seria et magis necessaria conscribendi nihilominus tamen de spiritalis historiae gestis etiam lege poematis lusi (Avitus, Epist. 51 ad Apollinarem) In this expression of gratitude for the favorable response there is no mention of youth. All that remains is the humble assertion that the poet composed while he was occupied with more pressing business. For the bishop, other more pressing forms of writing constantly intruded upon this project, and it is not surprising that Avitus speaks in this way. He gives no impression, however, that the poem is not also a serious work. The verb ludere (literally, "to play") s simply the conventional term for poetic composition. The fact that it is generally used of genres other than epic does not belie the fact that Avitus uses it here of serious poetry, as the prologue to the epic itself further makes clear. In this classic expression of the rule of faith Avitus speaks unequivocally of his purpose in composing the Spiritual History. It is extremely difficult, perhaps even impossible, he says, to write a religious work which is dogmatically accurate and at the same time artistically elegant, since the allowances of fiction must be somewhat restricted in a serious composition. But the bishop is determined to subordinate form to content, and if he is to prove defective in any one area, that area will be his literary style and not his doctrine, since, as he put it, the freedom to lie must be rejected [Quamquam quilibet acer ille doctusque sit, si religionis propositae stilum non minus fidei quam metri lege servaverit, vix aptus esse poemati queat: quippe cum licentia mentiendi, quae pictoribus ac poetis aeque conceditur. satis procul a causarum serietate pellenda sit (Prologus ad A pollinarem) Cd M. Roberts, The Prologue to Avitus' De spiritalis historiae gestis: Christian Poetry and Poetic License," Traditio 36 (1980) 99-407. Most of the Gallo-Roman bishops, including Avitus, were men of secular letters before their ordination: probably in response to the Statuta ecc/esiae antiqua (5th c.) he bishops Sidonius, Ennodius and Avitus all professed to give up writing and reading profane poetry after their ordination. This profession notwithstanding, each of these bishops violated their pledge to some degree, but Avitus least of all.Some, such as Sidonius Apollinaris and probably Ennodius, who did not write biblical epics, continued to cultivate secular poetry after their ordination. Avitus feels obliged, however, to declare that his poetry has a serious intent and is done with the interest of Christian doctrine foremost in mind. His work shows that he considered the paraphrase and commentary in verse a valid tool in the teaching of the faith. He believed that its formal tone and disciplined structure were effective vehicles for Christian edification among the literate. [That Avitus intended his work for educated adult readers is further suggested in the preface to his other poem, De virginitate (Pr. Book 6) Decet enim... nec in eo immorari, quod paucis intelligentibus mensuram syllabarum servando canat, sed quod legentibus multis mensurata fidei abstructione deserviat (For it is right not to dwell on that which, keeping the meter of syllables, sings to the few who understand, but rather to dwell on what can serve many readers with an orderly edification of faith) K. Forstner, Zur sibeldichtung des Avitus, in Symmicta G. Z., Roma 1980, pp. 45-60, sees it differently and considers Avitus= references to his poetry as an admission of their insignificance in his eyes. The care with which the bishop of Vienne constructed his poetry, however, suggests that the process was significant to him.

b) Orthodox Intention

The second recurrent theme in the original testimony is the desire to remain true to Christian orthodoxy and to repudiate pagan falsehood...

‘While pagan poets endeavor to parade their fictions in highsounding phrases and while with the tragedian's mouthing or the clownish antics of a Geta or in any other form of poetry they bring back to life the noxious poison of infamous events and glorify the memory of shameless deeds, and while with tradition to guide them they trace on papyrus from the Nile thousands of falsehoods, why should I, who am accustomed to chant the psalms of David to the sound of the ten-stringed Iyre and, at my place in the holy choir, why should I keep silent on the glorious miracles of Christ our Savior?’ (Sedulius) hile Sedulius adds a disdainful reference about the arrogant speech of the ancient writers, he, like Juvencus, emphasizes the truth of the Old and New Testaments over against the falsehoods contained in the ancient Greek and Roman mythology. [The incentive to produce a replacement literature may have been strengthened, since the fourth and fifth centuries witnessed a revival of the pagan epic, against which efforts the new Christian culture had to compete]. While both writers concede lasting fame to the earlier works, they make it

34

clear that the content of their poems will avoid any doctrinally offensive subject matter as found in pagan literature. More wholesome lessons drawn from the scriptural source, then, can easily fill the vacuum which results, enabling the Christian epic poet to transcend a chief element of pagan poetry, namely its pre-Christian social and conceptual framework.

Negative references like these to the content of pagan literature abound in the biblical epics and are somewhat topical, but it would be erroneous to regard them as an entirely empty formula. It is in connection with this theme, incidentally, that Proba's rejection of her own earlier poems because they were violent and battle-scarred imitations of pagan epic finds its place. The significance of her articulating this rejection in formal Virgilian terms should not be missed. It is as though the prologue to the Aeneid were turned insideout, for Proba is, in effect, saying arma uirumque non iam cano:

Iam dudum temerasse duces pia foedera pacis,regnandi miseros tenuit quos dira cupido,diuersasque neces, regum crudelia bellacognatasque acies, pollutos caede parentuminsignis clipeos nulloque ex hoste tropaea,sanguine conspersos tulerat quos fama triumphos,innumeris totiens uiduatas ciuibus urbes,confiteor, scripsi: satis est meminisse malorum.

I confess, in the past I have written about military leaders who had defiled the sacred covenants of peace, wretches whom the dread desire for power gripped. I wrote about widespread slaughter, the savage wars of kings, and families drawn up against themselves, distinguished shields befouled by the murder of parents and prizes from no enemy, blood-spattered triumphs which fame had publicised, and cities so often bereft of countless citizens. It is enough to remember such evils [Cento, 1-8].

In that same passage her repudiation of the falsehoods contained in pagan poetic compositions, the prophetic inspiration, the tripod of victory, the Olympian deities, and the familial gods, is even more forceful:

non mihi saxa loqui persuadeat errorlaurigerosque sequi tripodas et inania uotaiurgantesque deos procerum uictosque penates.

May error not persuade me that rocks speak, and to follow the laurel-covered tripod and useless prayers and the quarreling gods and conquered penates of princes [Cento, 15-17. These lines, except for the phrase victosque penates, are independent of particular Virgilian phraseology (note the unvirgilian non with the subjunctive of prohibition) The originality of her statements suggests her earnestness.Avitus' repudiation of "the freedom to lie," in the prologue to his composition (... Iicentia mentiendi, quae pictoribus ac poetis aeque conceditur, satis procul a causarum seritate pellenda sit) is also significant].As work continues in relating the biblical epics to the exegetical tradition, we are better able to witness how Proba and her successors in the Christian tradition of versifying the biblical account of Creation made strong efforts to unveil those truths which Genesis was believed to contain. Ever concerned for the ease with which error could reenter into human understanding after the fall, they worked to ensure that their poems presented true doctrine. Accordingly, their own references to the poetry emphasized themes which suggest and support that purpose.

CHAPTER TWOTHEOLOGY IN BIBLICAL EPICS BASED ON GENESIS...

I. Proba's Cento

[Proba's Cento, generally believed to date from the third quarter of the fourth century, is one of the earliest adaptations of Scripture to classical verse form, in this case borrowing verbatim lines and half lines from Virgil's poetry and rearranging them to approximate the scriptural narrative of Genesis, Exodus and several episodes from the New Testament. In the Middle Ages the work was frequently bound with other versiflcations of Scripture for use in schools, despite its having received severe critlclsm by Jerome and denunciation by Gelasius for unorthodoxy. It is bound with other works known for their use in education, such as Aldhelm's Symposia and Aenigmata, in continental MSS Vat. Reg.251 and 1666].

35

Proba (ca 360) the first Christian poet to center attention on the opening chapters of Genesis [E. Clark and D.Hatch, The Golden Bough, The Oaken Ctoss, p. 6], refers to the doctrine of the Trinity in her invocation rather than in the course of the narrative itself, almost certainly as a result of restrictions imposed by the cento form. In the course of twenty-five lines of the invocation, however, where she combines Virgilian phrases with her own words, she cites each person of the Trinity. First, she calls upon God to "open the mouth of his sevenfold, eternal spirit," (aeternique tui septemplicis ora resolue/ spiritus, 10-11) The use of septemplex here is an example of the merging of a pagan literary motif with a biblical one by a writer sensitive to its applicability in the new religious context. The pagan allusion is to the seven notes of Orpheus, whose Iyre has seven strings. This echo of Virgil is highly appropriate as Proba begins her Christian harmonizing of Genesis and the greatest Roman literary work. In the Christian context, the appellation septemplex refers to the seven gifts (derived from a reading of Isa. 11:1-2 [LXX]) raditionally attributed to the person of the Holy Spirit and reflects a theological tradition related to the Spirit that would likely have been known to Proba's audience. [Whereas the Hebrew text lists only six 'spirits,' the LXX lists seven, repeating the fear of the Lord. For an account of the theme of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, noting, along with Aquinas, that Isaiah speaks of seven spirits rather than gifts, see Dictionnaire de Spiritualilé, s.v. dons].

Proba is not the only Christian writer to make the connection between both cultures' associations of the word. Ambrose (339-97) the Bishop of Milan, a contemporary of Proba, refers in his exegetical treatise Jacob and the Happy Life to the patriarch Jacob as one who tam suauis numeris septem uocum differentias oblocutus quam iste septemplici spiritus sancti gratia resultauit (sang the distinctions among the seven notes in measures so sweet, the way he resounded with the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit) De lacob et beata vita, 2.39.9 CSEL 32.2, p. 56, trans. M. McHugh, Fathers of the Church Vol. 65 (Washington, DC 1972) p. 170]. Elsewhere he speaks of the human soul as a cithara quando septiformem accipit spiritum in baptismatis sacramento (when it receives the sevenfold spirit in the sacrament of baptism) De interpell. Iob et David, 4.10.36, CSEL 32.2, p. 295, trans. M. McHugh, Fathers of the Church, Vol. 65. p. 419].

The phrase septemplexspiritus also appears in an apologetical poem, Against Marcion, earlier attributed to Tertullian and attributed to an unknown poet of the latter half of the fourth century, making it contemporary with Ambrose and Proba. In the course of a long passage defending the doctrine that the trinitarian God revealed in the New Testament is the same God as revealed to the ancient Hebrews, the poet points to several objects and events of the Old Testament that are figures of the truth further revealed in the New. In the seven branches of the menorah in the Hebrew temple, the poet sees a figure of the sevenfold spirit. The lamp is located in the temple chamber: In cuius tenebris septemplex spiritus unus lucebat sanctus semper plebemque tegebat (In whose dark recesses one sevenfold spirit, holy, was always illuminating and covering the people) [Carmen adv. Marcionem, 4. 128, ed. R. Willems, CCL 2.1445 (Turnhout, 1954)

Proba's concise phrase is well-chosen as she invokes the spirit of God at the beginning of her work and, linked as it is to the developing theology of the Holy Spirit, it reinforces her trinitarian orthodoxy [See P. Courcelle, "Les Pères de l'Eglise devant les enfers virgiliens," Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 30 (1955) esp. p. 32 and note 8]. She then addresses the pater, hominum rerumque aeterna potestas (Father, everlasting authority over men and the universe) nd nate, patris summi uigor et caelestis origo (Son, the energy of the Supreme Father, and Celestial Source) 29-32) Her subsequent anthropomorphic descriptions of the Father-creator, reflecting the Genesis narrative, must therefore be considered in combination with the profession of the Trinity which prefaces her entire composition.

It is not surprising, given the early date of the Cento's composition, that the trinitarian appellations are modestly developed, although the Father and Son receive somewhat fuller appellations than the Spirit. The term septemplex notwithstanding, a theological vocabulary to describe the person of the Spirit was still essentially awaiting formation, and that formation would wait until several christological disputes were resolved. Moreover, Proba's interest in pursuing the identity of the Spirit was not strong. The Spirit is not even given its customary place in the narrative of Gen. 1:2, which Christian exegetes often took as a reference to the Holy Spirit. And although it is true that she chose to include, in the New Testament portion of the poem, the scene describing the appearance of the dove at Jesus' baptism along with the Father's words of blessing of the Son (397 ff.) which is an episode common to the Gospels and frequently taken by Christian exegetes as evidence of the Trinity, she gives no indication of this connection in her poem.

The question of the relation between Father and Son, however, the point of burning significance for the Church in the mid-fourth century and in fact the central concern of the so-called trinitarian controversies, is more strongly represented. Her invocation contains a key

36

concept related to this issue in her appellation of the Son as "the energy of the Supreme Father, and Celestial Source." Despite her use here of a phrase from Anchises' speech on the divine seed which in Stoic philosophy was thought to link all parts of creation, Proba is evoking the early Christian view of the Logos as the active function of the godhead. She thereby shows us another point of affinity between formal epic diction and Christian theology. Marius Victorinus' Platonic defense of the orthodox trinitarian doctrine against Arianism composed around 360, for example, also speaks of all creation drawing from God the potentiam viventis vigoris (force of living energy) Marius Victorinus, Adv. Arium, 4.5 CSEL 83.1, p. 230]. He then specifies that in the divine Trinity, the second person is zoetes, id est vitalitas, id est prima universalis vitae potentia, hoc est prima vita, fonsque omnium vivendi, (the life principle, the prime potential of all life, the first life, the source of living of all things) [Ibid, p. 231. Elsewhere in this treatise (1, 19) Victorinus uses the classical distinction between potency (polentia) nd act (actio) o characterize the persons of the Father and Son, respectively. But the concept that the logos is the creating principle, the "external revelation of being," remains constant. This again shows the combined pnsitjve and negative concepts of God as mutually transcendent and immanent: the God of the philosophers and the God of the Scriptures. See E. Gilson, History of Christjan Philosophy in the Middle Ages (New York, 1955) p. 69].

Moreover, the sense of the Father as transcendent, revealed through Christ the Logos, is added by Proba at one point in the narrative to the New Testament portion of the cento, in a comment which precedes her versification of the Sermon on the Mount. "The eternal power [Christ]," she observes (in pure Virgilian half-lines) "began to give laws and ordinances to men and mysteries concerning his Father" (aeterna potestas/ iura dabat legesque uiris, secreta parentis) 463-4) In Virgil, however, secreta parentis refers only to the physical remoteness of Anchises' home (Aen. 2.299) In Proba the secreta (shifted also from the singular adjective to the plural noun) uggests "the term for divine mysteries, the hiddenness, the unattainable nature or [scil. of] God." [P. Wilson-Kastner, et al., A Lost Tradition: Women Writers of the Early Church (Washington, D.C., 1981) p. 39]. This is an advance on the simple process of giving new associations to the words deus, pater, or even to vigor and origo, which originally referred to deities or divine forces in the pre-Christian pantheon. Here the concept of Christ as revealer of the Father is expressed in Virgil's language with no reference whatsoever to the original context. The overall effect gives the reader a rare glimpse of the developing Christian doctrine of God.

II. Cyprianus' Heptateuch

[Virtually nothing is known about the composer of the most expansive versification of the Old Testament from Late Antiquity. Scholars judging from internal evidence generally maintain that the poet was from Gaul and wrote during the first quarter of the fifth century, but even these details have been disputed.]Aspects of the Christian doctrine of God are present in the Heptateuch of Cyprianus both through substitutions for the words and phrases of the Vetus latina, the text he followed, and through concise exegetical comments added to the narrative. Although the poem has been viewed as a simple paraphrase of Scripture, the poet's modifications suggest exegetical interests. In fact, the modifications indicate not only a degree of independence from the scriptural model but also a familiarity with some lesser-known exegetical motifs.

An interesting modification occurs at the very beginning of the poem. In answer to Gen. 1:2, Spiritus Dei (or Domini) uperferebatur super aquas, Cyprianus writes immensusque deus super aequora uasta meabat (God was passing, boundless, above the vast seas, 3) The phrase immensus Deus (or Dominus) s used in four other places in the Heptateuch, each being a reference to Yahweh added by the poet to the scriptural narrative. [Ex l70 (Ex.3:15) Ex 425 (Ex.14:12) Lv 230 (Lv.24:11) Nu 557 (Nu.21:17) The phrase also appears in poetry in the opening verse of the Satisfactio of Dracontius: Rex immense Deus, cunctorum conditor et spes.] Here the substitution for spiritus dei may reflect the poet's desire to interpret Gen. 1:2 as pointing to the immateriality and transcendence of the Creator, rather than to the Holy Spirit.

The scriptural verse was interpreted in various ways by the church fathers, even by the same writer. For example, Tertullian treats the spiritus dei of Gen. 1:2 much like the original Hebrew ruah, the word for wind, when an occasion calls for a naturalistic reading of Gen. 1:2: Proinde membra erant caeli et terrae abyssus et tenebrae, spiritus et aquae (In like manner the deep and the darkness, and the spirit and the waters, were as members of the heaven and the earth) [Tertullian, Adv. Hermogenem 31.9 (CCL 1.423) trans. P.Holmes, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. 15 (Edinburgh, 1870) p. 100. See J. Moingt, S.J., Théologie trinitaire de Tertullien, Vol. 4,

37

Répertoire Lexicographique et tables (Paris, 1969) p. 210]. In his treatise against Marcion, however, he interprets Gen. 1:2 as a reference to the Holy Spirit: A quo spiritum sanctum postulem? A quo nec mundialis spiritus praestatur an a quo fiunt etiam angeli spiritus, cuius et in primordio spiritus super aquas ferebatur? (Of whom can I ask for his Holy Spirit? Of him [i.e. the God of Marcion] who gives not even the mundane spirit, or of him who maketh his angels spirits, and whose spirit it was which in the beginning hovered upon the waters?) [Tertullian, Adv. Marcionem 4.26.4 (CCL 1.615) trans. P. Holmes, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1868) p. 289. Cf. Tertullian, De Baptismo 4.1; 8.3].

Yet again, he may give neither the naturalistic interpretation nor the theological one, but interpret the spiritus dei as the animating principle in the creation: Dubitabitur, credo, deDei viribus, qui tantum corpus hoc mundi de eo, quod nonfuerat, non minus quam de morte vacationis et inanitatis imposuit animatum spiritu omnium animatore (Someone, I suppose, will have a doubt about the power of God who has produced this great body of the world out of what did not exist, which is no less than to produce it out of the death of emptiness and void, vivified by the spirit which is the principle of life of all souls.) Tertullian, Apologeticum 48.7 (CCL I .167) Since no other mention of spiritus is made in connection with the creation in the biblical account, it appears that Cyprianus chose to present Gen. 1:2 with emphasis on the transcendence of God. It may be thought that he abandoned an opportunity to provide an exegetical comment related to the doctrine of the Trinity, but the alternative he provides also addresses an exegetical tradition related to the doctrine of God. Moreover, we have already seen that Proba's omission of a reference to the Spirit in her presentation of Gen. 1:2 did not prevent her from acknowledging her faith in the Trinity elsewhere. Rather than repeat the scriptural verse of Gen. 1:2 verbatim, then, Cyprianus may have chosen to use it to suggest the immateriality of the creator of all matter. The word was used of God in this same sense, for example, by a near contemporary of Cyprianus, Bishop Maximus of Turin, in a discussion including the word immensus of God as Spirit: Primo omnium deus, qui incorporabilis est et inuisibilis - est enim spiritus sicut ait dominus: "Deus spiritus est" -, sedere aut stare quomodo potest? Deinde aut quali subsellio sedeat deus, qui infinitus est et immensus et intra se ipse magis creaturarum cuncta contineat? In the first place, how is the God of all things, who is incorporeaí and invisible - for "God is Spirit" as the Lord says - able to sit or stand, or then on what kind of seat would God sit, who is infinite and boundless and who himself could rather contain all creatures within himself.'

[Maximus of Turin Homily 40.3 (on Psalm 109) CCL 23.161) In his own handling of the creation narrative, Cyprianus refers to the creator exclusively with the words deus, pater and dominus (lines 7, 21, 40, 45) The only exception occurs in the passage describing Adam and Eve's formation on the sixth day, where the creator is called divina potentia. In choosing this phrase the poet may have been influenced by the common interpretation of Gen. I :26 (faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram) hich was often interpreted as an indication of the participation of the logos in the creation of man.]

An aspect of the doctrine of God is also found in the Heptateuch of Cyprianus in the description of the formation of Adam. This has received the attention of J.M. Evans, who remarks that the poet "noticed the shift from the abstracted Elohim of the first chapter of Genesis, to the anthropomorphic Jahweh of the second, who fashioned Adam with his own hands, and he takes advantage of the contrast to comment on the special care lavished on Man by his creator:" [Paradise Lost and the Genesis Tradition (Oxford, 1968) p. 138]:

"... Hominem nostris faciamus in unguemuultibus adsimilem, toto qui regnet in orbe."et licet hunc solo posset componere uerbo,ipse tamen sancta dignatus ducere dextrainspirat brutum diuino a pectore pectus.quem postquam efflgie formatum ceu sua uidit...

"Let us make man to perfection like our appearance, so he may rule in the entire world." And although he could have composed the man by his word alone, he deigned to form him with his holy hand and blew his divine breath into the brute breast. And after he [God] saw the man formed just as in his own image...' [Heptateuchos, Gen. 27-32.]

This comment, theologically relevant to a presentation of man as God's special creature, is an important exegetical motif. The prose exegetes spent considerable energy pondering the meaning of the second creation account in Genesis, which describes the formation of Adam from the mud

38

of the earth. One tradition taught that it explained the earlier reference to man's creation in the image of his maker, thereby placing emphasis on man's composite nature, so that according to both his spiritual and bodily form is man like God. This, the view reflected in Cyprianus' quem postquam effigie formatum ceu sua, was treated by a number of church fathers and was a favorite topic of biblical epic poets.

[Theoph. Antioch, Ad Autolycum 2.18; Macarius Magnes, Frag. comm. in Gen. (PG 10.1397). Avitus, De spiritalis historiae gestis 1.302-03; (Hildebert) De operibus sex dierum, (PL 171.1215) for example, also emphasize man's preeminenceas a product of God's own hand. Among the prose exegetes, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Basil are representative. In Irenaeus, the account of God's physical formation of Adam is directly related to the idea of man as made in God's image: "He has established with the Word the whole world... but man He fashioned with His own hands, taking the purest and finest of earth, in measured wise mingling with the earth His own power; for He gave his frame the outline of His own form, that the visible appearance too should be godlike - for it was as an image of God that man was fashioned and set on earth - and that he might come to life, He 'breathed into his face the breath of life, so that man became like God in inspirafion as well as in frame'" (Iren. Proof of Aposto/ic Preaching 11) Similarly, Tertullian argues that the detailed account of God's formation of Adam teaches the preeminence of man: Merito igitur, utfamula, iussu et imperio et sola uocali potestate uniuersa processerant, contra homo. ut dominus eorum, in hoc ab ipso deo extructus est, ut dominus esse possit, dum f et a domino (Rightly, therefore, had the crealures which were thus intended for subjection come forth into being at the bidding and command and sole power of the divine voice; whilst man, on the contrary, desfined to be their lord, was formed by God himself, to the intent that he might be able to exercise his mastery, being created by the Master, the lord himself, [De Resurrectione Mortuorum 5.7 CCL 2, p. 927. Trans. AnteNicene Fathers, vol 3, p. 549]) Gamber, p. 105, saw the affinity between this passage and the Heptateuch poet's comment: "il se contente de remarquer, à la suite de Tertullien, si un ordre avait suffi pour tirer du , néant les autres créatures, l’homme, leur futur maître, pour avoir le droit de régner sur elles, devait être formé par la main même de Díeu."

Also, Basil never tires of pointing out man's preeminence implicit in his being formed by God: "In what way was man made? He did not say: 'Let there be man,' as he said 'Let there be a firmament.' But in man you see something fuller than in light, than in the heavens, than in the luminaries. The procreation of man excells all things. 'God took up': he deigns to form our body with his own hand" (Homilies On the Creation of Man 2,2 in Sur l'origine de l'homme[Hom. X et Xl de l'Hexaemeron] ed., A. Smets, S.J. and M. van Esbroeck, SC 160 [Paris, 1970], p. 228. This work was for long attributed to Gregory of Nyssa, Basil's younger brother)

The concept of man's preeminence, however, was not universally related to the second creation account. An equally prominent and accessible tradition rejected the proposition that man is special because Genesis relates that God formed him. Origen, for example, chooses instead to focus on the spiritual nature as the imago Dei and therefore asserts only man's spiritual preeminence.[Hunc sane hominem, quem dicit ad imaginem Dei factum, non intelligimus corporalem. Non enim corporis fragmentum Dei imaginem continet (We do not, of course, understand this man whom Scripture says was made 'according to the image of God' to be corporeal. For the form of the body does not contain the image of God [Origen (Rufinus) Homiliae in Genesim 1.13, GCS 29, p. 15. Cf. Contra Celsum ch. 63]) Likewise, Augustine, rather than relate the notion of the imago Dei to the second creation account, made the distinction between the two accounts the basis of his interpretation of man's preeminence.[Nec illud audiendum est, quod nonnulli putant, ideo praecipuum dei opus esse hominem, quia 'cetera dixit. et facta sunt, ' hunc autem ipsefecit, sed ideo potius, quia hunc ad imaginem suam fecit... Nec dicendum est, 'hominem ipse fecit, pecora uero iussit', (No ear should be given to what some think, namely that man is God's principal work because, 'he spoke, and the rest were made,' but he himself made man. I et is rather because he made man in his own image ... We ought not say, 'God Himself made man, but the animals he ordered to be made.) e Genesi ad litteram 6.12, CSEL 28.3,1, pp. 185-6 Cf. Ambrose, De inst. virg. 3.17-21, PL 16.310.]God's formation of Adam thus involves a substantial exegetical issue. Cyprianus' comment emphasizes divine benevolence through a reflection on the preeminence of man's physical nature, a position that is consistent with his presentation of the Fall. [Many of the intervening narrative details which the poet adds to the account of the Fall may also be profitably examined in light of the exegetical tradition. Prior to his discussion of this episode Evans calls attention, in passing, to an exegetical tradition related to the Heptateuch: "Like Prudentius and Dracontius, Cyprian

39

appears to have held the 'cumulative' theory of the tree of knowledge expounded by Gregory of Nyssa, according to which the forbidden fruit contained a mixture of good and evil life and death" (p. 139)

Cyprianus' additions and modifications also address the specifically Christian doctrine of the Trinity. A rich exegetical tradition concerning the Trinity affected his treatment of an episode occurring later in Genesis, the appearance of the three men to Abraham. This scriptural episode interested many early Christian exegetes, who gave a variety of interpretations of the identity of the three visitors.[W.T. Miller, Early Christian and Jewish Hermeneutic of Genesis 18, 1-16 and 32, 23-33 (Diss. New York, 1979) The diversity of exegetical opinion stems from an apparent contradiction in the scriptural original: there it is stated first that God (Deus in VL. Gen. 18:1, occasionally Dominus) ppeared to Abraham, but, according to the ensuing narrative, Abraham saw three men. In the story and dialogue which follow it becomes increasingly difficult to determine the relationship of the three to the Lord. In some verses (e.g. 10 and 13) et appears that the plurality is done away with as the messenger's words are prefaced by the singular dixit dominus (and the Lord said). Abraham, at least, appears immediately to have singled out one of the men, for he addresses a singular lord in v. 3. Two in the group, moreover, are later called angeli (Gen. 19:1) which has suggested that the Lord God is one of the three, the other two being his attendants. To an unimaginative paraphrast not interested in the theological implications of his narrative, the identity of the three men need not have been any concern: the narrative could simply have been versified ambiguities and all. Cyprianus, however, besides giving a full paraphrase of the events, offers a concise but clear exegetical commentary supporting a particular way of understanding Abraham's three messengers within the context of Christian theology. Cyprianus' first comment is that Abraham had unknowingly deum trina positum sub imagine pascit (provided a meal to God who had assumed a threefold image, Gen. 611) Although this may seem a natural episode for Christian commentators to cite as evidence of the Trinity in the Old Testament, in fact the church fathers felt under no compulsion to emphasize the potential relationship. Origen, for example, uses the passage to demonstrate the ultimate identity of all rational creatures, be they at present angels, devils, or men, since in Gen. 18 the three visitors are variously called angels and men. [Origen, Commentary on John 2, 144.] In other instances, commentators were influenced chiefly by the fact that the Genesis narrative relates that one of the three, the "lord" addressed by Abraham, remained behind while only the two "angeli" continued on to Lot at Sodom. This led to a viewpoint that the three are the Son and two angels. Justin Martyr set out to prove to Trypho that one of these three is God and yet is termed an angel or "messenger," because, as stated above, he delivered divine messages; he adds, however, that the leader who appeared to Abraham in human form like the two angels who accompanied him was in fact the God who existed before the creation of the universe. [Justin Martyr, Dlalogue with Trypho ch. 56, tr. T. Falls, Fathers of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 233]. This God, for Justin, is the Son, "who is distinct from God the creator; distinct, that is, in number, but not in mind." [Ibid. pp. 233-4]. Origen also adopts this viewpoint on occasion, as when he wants to emphasiæ the greater worthiness of Abraham as compared to Lot: Observa quod Abraham cum duobus angelis etiam Dominus adfuit, ad Lot vero duo tantummodo angeli pergunt... Ille ergo suscipit eos, qui perditum darent, non suscepit eum qui salvaret; Abraham vero suscepit et eum qui salvat, et eos qui perdunt. See that the Lord also appeared to Abraham along with the two angels, but to Lot only the two angels come... And so he received those who were going to cause destruction and not him who saves. Abraham, however, received both him who saves and those who destroy. [Origen, In Genesim homilia 4.1, GCS 29 (Leipzig, 1920) p. 51.]

Even when a commentator chose to employ the passage in a discussion of the Trinity per se, Abraham's visitors were at times understood as only one divine person accompanied by two attendants, since Abraham addressed "only one of them as Lord." For Novatian, in fact, who labored to defend the transcendence and personal superiority of the Father to the Son and the Son's superiority to the angels, "the only possible explanation that will render to God the Father his proper invisibility and to an angel his proper inferior position is to believe that no one but the Son of God, who is also God, was seen and hospitably received by Abraham." [Novatian, De Trinitate 18.13 trans. R. DeSimone (Fathers of the Church, Vol. 67) p. 70. Earlier in the same chapter Novatian makes it clear that only one ofthe three is Christ, the other two being angels. Cf. Tertullian, Adv. Marcionem 3.9.]

The poets were as prone as their prose counterparts to interpret the identity of the three

40

visitors in various ways. The biblical epic poet Claudius Marius Victorius followed the same tradition as Novatian in understanding the three as comprised of the Son and two attendants. Victorius, in explaining that one is the Lord although three are seen, captures perfectly the traditional interpretation of Abraham's imperfect recognition of Christ:

Tres subito adstiterunt augusta luce micantes.Abraham tanti stimulatus imagine uisusprocurrit dominumque solo prostratus adoratunum, cum tres miretur...usque adeo uisus inter sensusque uigenteserrabat dubitans, hominem quod forma referret,quem norat mens esse deum tamen.

Suddenly, three were present, shining with a brilliant light. Abraham, roused by the image of so great a sight, ran near and Iying prostate on the ground, worships one as Lord although he sees three... And even among so vivid images and perceptions he, doubting, erred, because the form bespoke a man, whom nevertheless the mind knew to be God. [Alethia 3.645-8; 652-4.]

Victorius connects this visitation, as Novatian does in a passage immediately following that quoted above, with the future Incarnation of Christ, a fact clear to him but only dimly grasped by the Hebrew patriarch. Yet this episode existed, ultimately, uerum hominem rursus uultuque et corpore toto/ sumendum quandoque deo Christique futuri/ argumenta daret (so that it might give evidence of Christ to come, that some day a real man, complete in appearance and in his body, would again be assumed by God [Alethia, 3.65961]) [Cf. Novatian, De Trinitate 18.1: "As Abraham's guest, he was prefiguring in a mystery what he would one day be, when he would find himself among the Sons of Abraham. For he washed their feet to prove that it was really he." Trans. DeSimone, p. 70.]

Discussing the same episode, the poet Prudentius, in a work dating a few decades before Victorius', commented that Abram,/ iam tunc dignati terras inuisere Christi/ hospes homo, in triplicem nume radiasse figuram (Abraham was a host to Christ, who deigned to vis the lands, to radiate divine power in threefold shape) [Apotheosis 28-30, CCL 126.78.] Prudentius here reflecting the familiar argument that the Father cannot be see and therefore the Old Testament references to seeing "God" are in reality speaking of the Son. But in this context he sees the thre visitors as a triple image of Christ, rather than as a representatio either of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or composed of Christ and two angels.[In the Psychomachia, pr. 45 ff., Prudentius again refers to the visit to Abraham This time he speaks in less definite terms about the visit of God as a triformi angelorum trinitas.]

Among such symbolic interpretations, perhaps the clearest con nection of Abraham's three visitors with the entire Trinity is given b Augustine. The Bishop of Hippo was by no means influenced by th argument that since Abraham addresses one of them as lord, on divine person and two angels are indicated. On more than on occasion he points out that the two "angels" who visit Lot are als, addressed as lord by him. Given this prior understanding, Augustin offers his interpretation in the form of a rhetorical question: Cum uero tres uisi sunt nec quisquam in eis uel forma uel aetate uel potestate maior ceteris dictus est, cur non hic accipiamus uisibiliter insinuatam per creaturam uisibilem trinitatis aequalitatem atque in tribus personis unam eandemque substantiam? But since three men appeared, and none of them is said to be greater than the rest either in form, or age, or power, why should we not here understand, as visibly intimated by the visible creature, the equality of the Trinity, and one and the same substance in three persons? [De Trmitate 2.11, CCL 50.1, p. 107, trans. A. Haddan, The Works oSAureliu Augustinus, Vol. 7, p. 63. Cf. 2.9; 2.18; 3.10.]

Augustine does not leave the speculation here, but asks: What then o the two angeli who proceed to Lot? Which persons of the Trinity d~ they represent - the Father and Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit or the Son and Holy Spirit? He answers by suggesting that "the last i perhaps most suitable, for they said of themselves that they were sent which is what we say of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we fin nowhere in the Scriptures that the Father was sent." [Ibid. 2.12. In later writings, Augustine gives a more literal description of the three visitors as genuine angels, but he retains the refutations contained in his trinitaria exegesis. See City of God 16.29; Sermo 7.6 De Vetere Testamento.]

Of the numerous exegetical paths available to him, the Heptateuch poet chose one near

41

Augustine's symbolic trinitarian reflection. He rejects the suggestion that only one of the visitors was divine and attended by two angels, choosing to call them instead deum trina positum sub imagine. Moreover, he specifies the two messengers who continued on to Sodom as Natus et Altor. It is not clear, however, whether he was specifying the Father or the Holy Spirit as "altor." Earlier uses of that term in Christian literature generally refer either to the godhead at large or to the person of the Father.[Dracontius uses the term altor as one of many epithets for the creator and sustainer of Paradise: ipse rigator erat, sator, altor, messor, arator(De laud. Dei 1.552) Of those epithets altor is the clearest indicator of divinity. Cf. Dracontius. Oeuvres Vol. 1, p. 308 n.]

Elsewhere, Cyprianus shows his knowledge of another exegetical tradition reílecting a strongly Christian theology by making Christ rather than Yahweh present in events of the Old Testament. In verses depicting the divine guidance of the chosen people out of Egypt, the poet declares that ignotas monstrante uias per deuia Christo (it is Christ who showed the unfamiliar way through the wilderness, E. 413) This connection has exegetical precedents in both prose and verse references to Ex. 13:21, on which Cyprianus' verse is modeled. One type of connection used the divine guidance manifested in the cloud and fire of Ex. 13:21 as a figure for a more significant guidance of the soul by Christ the Redeemer. This figurative reading was developed extensively by Origen, who pointed out that in Exodus the heavenly guides appeared only on the third day of the journey, at which point the Hebrews were in violation of Pharaoh's earlier limitation of the distance he would allow them to journey into the wilderness in order to sacrifice to the Lord. This third day on which the signs are revealed thus figures the day of Christ's resurrection and the day of Christian baptism on which the signs of salvation will be shown. [Origen, In Exodum homilia 5.3, GCS 29 (Leipzig, 1920) p. 187.] In a similar way Augustine sees a figure of the grace of Christ in the cloud, which comes to cover the tabernacle (Ex. 40:35) For him, Moses' inability to enter the meeting tent symbolized the Jews' inability to participate in that grace. [Augustine, Quaest. Exodi CLXXVI (CCL 33.152) As has already been discussed, however, it was not uncommon for early Christian exegetes to present the actions of the God of the Old Testament as literally being performed by the person of the Son. It was a natural way of appropriating the Hebrew scriptures to Christian theology as well as of preserving the Supreme Father's transcendence in light of the more primitive presentation in the Old Testament narratives. And although to travel down this exegetical path was to risk falling into a number of heresies, including Modalism and Arianism, the inclination to travel it was strong. The direct attribution to Christ of the guidance of the Hebrews on the way out of Succoth was made with a strong tendency toward Modalism, for example, by the poet Commodian (mid fourth century) n his apology against the Jews and Pagans entitled De duobus populis. Among the errors of the Jews, Commodian includes their failure to recognize the son of God in the narrative of Ex. 13:21:

Ipsa spes est tota, Deo credere, qui ligno pependit;foeda licet res est, sed utilis uitae futurae.Nam populus ille primitiuus illo deceptusquod filium dixit, cum sit Deus, pristinus ipse.Hic praeibat eos in columna nubis et ignis,quando de Aegypto liberauit illos ad unum.Hic crudele nefas imperat de unico nato,ut probaret Abraham, cui dixit "Parce!" e caeloangelus. Et Deus est, hominem totidemque se fecit.

This is hope entirely, to believe in God who hung from wood. Although it is a horrible matter, yet it is useful to the life to come. For that primitive nation was deceived because he who is God, the original, said he was the son. He it was who preceded them in a column of cloud and fire, when he liberated them all from Egypt. He it was who ordered a cruel crime concerning an only son, so that he might test Abraham, to whom an angel (then) aid from out of heaven "spare him." And he is God, and in the same manner he made himself man. [Commodian, Carmen de duobus populis 615-23 (CCL 128.95-6)

Cyprianus' use of Christ's name in this context does not imply that he maintained a belief in the literal substitution of the person of Christ in the historical events of the Old Testament. It is more likely that he is here reflecting the common practice of interpreting the Old Testament narrative in terms of type and symbol. An exact parallel to Cyprianus' association of Christ with the pillar of fire and the column of cloud is Augustine's use of the same association to emphasize the "presence" of Christ everywhere in the Scriptures:

42

Christus mihi ubique illorum librorum, ubique illarum scripturarum... cur ergo non et nubes Christus et columna, quia rectus et firmus et fulciens infirmitatem nostram. Christ [meets] me everywhere in those books, everywhere in those scriptures ... Why, therefore, is the cloud and the column not Christ, since he is upright and strong and supportive of our weakness. [Augustine, Contra Fatlslum Manichaeum 12.27, 29 (CSEL 25.3s6,3s7)

III. Ps. Hilarius' Metrum in Genesim

[The identity of the composer of this poem is unknown. The Metrum is attributed to Hilary of Poitiers in a 9th c. manuscript of Laon. In the 20th c. it has heen thought to be the work of Hilary of Arles, but this attribution has also been doubted recently. see Herzog, Die Bibelepik der lateinischen Spätantike, pp. xxvii-xxxii.]The comments of the author of the Metrum in Genesim (ca 430) uggest a concern for the accurate reflection of Christian doctrine through poetry. Despite its brief handling of the biblical narrative, the poem expresses the doctrines of the transcendence of God and of the Trinity in an elegant and competent manner. The opening prayer of praise contains numerous rhetorical litanies suggesting the transcendence of God. The Father of the universe is prior to everything, has no other source, is without beginning and will have no end:

omnia per temet, ex te, qui maxima condis:ex te nata, pater; nec patris est pater alter:tu caput es capiti, primi tu fontis origo,primus apex rerum, primus sator, omnia condensnec tamen ex alio ducis genus: ipse perennisspiritus, antiquo uiuens per saecula motu.semper eris, qula semper eras: non mortis egenusqui natalis inops nec finem noueris aeui,ex se principium cui contigit, haut manet alterauctorem casus: nascentia terminus urget.

All things which exist are through you, from you, who establish the greatest things. From you they have been born, father; nor is there another father of the father. You are the summit of the summit, the beginning of the first source, the first apex of the universe, the first sower, establishing all. Nor do you derive your descent from anything else, yourself Spirit eternal, living with ancient motion throughout the ages. You always will exist because you always existed, not having to die, who, without birth, do not know an end to life; to that which befell a selfbeginning no other eventuality awaits the creator, an ending oppresses things that are born. (13-22)

In his subsequent reflections on the creation of the material universe, Hilarius regularly addresses the creator in the singular as deus, dominus, pater, and genitor. [In one line (27) the poet uses the phrase secreta potestas as an appositive to deus.] Like many other Christian exegetes, however, he understands the plural of Genesis 1:26 "Let us make man ..." as evidence of the Son's participation in the formation of Adam and Eve. He makes this point the subject of a personal comment: "Faciamus," ais, "hominem." dic, optime, cum quo conloqueris? Clarum est: iam tum tibi filius alto adsidet in solio et terras spectat amicas.You say, "Let us make man." Tell, Supreme one, with whom are you speaking? It is clear. Even at that time your son sits beside you on a lofty throne and surveys the pleasant lands. (116-18)

The poet's firm answer indicates a resolution concerning this major exegetical issue. Gen. 1:26 had become a locus classicus in evidence for the Trinity in the Old Testament. Against the earlier Jewish and (primarily Gnostic) hristian tradition of assigning to angels an intermediary role in the creation, later orthodox exegetes argued that the plural ought to be accounted for with reference to God alone. Thus Hilary of Poitiers (fourth century) ocused on the divine son as the recipient of the words spoken by the creator throughout the creation narrative: Significato namque Dei Filio per quemfacta sunt omnia, in eo quod dictum esset (The Son of God, through whom all things were made, was pointed out by the words that were uttered) [Hilary, De Trr'n. 4.17 (CCL 62.120) trans. S. McKenna (Fathers of the Church, Vol. 25, p. 107) Similarly, Ambrose asks the same question and gives a most firm response: Cui dicit? Non sibi utique, quia non dicit "faciam," sed "'faciamus," non angelis, quia ministri sunt, serui autem cum domino et opera cum auctore non possunt operationis habere consortium, sed dicit filio, etiamsi Iudaei nolint, etiamsi Ariani repugnent. To whom does he speak? Surely not to himself, because he does not say ~Let me make,~' but "Let

43

us make." He does not speak to the angels, because they are servers, and servers cannot have partnership in a work with their master, nor created things with their creator. He speaks rather to the Son, although the Jews are unwilling to accept this and the Arians object to it. [Ambrose, Hexaemeron 6, 7 CSEL 32 pt. I, pp. 231-2, trans. J. Savage, modified (Fathers of the Church, Vol 42, p. 253)

Alternatively, the passage suggested to Augustine the idea that man was created in the image of the entire Trinity, not merely in that of the Father and the Son. [Augustine, De Trin. 12.6, 6-7. See J. Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, Vol. I (Chicago, 1973) p. 197.] But the earlier tradition of interpreting the plural as a reference to angels who were believed to play the role of intermediaries in the creation survived and, in only slightly altered form, manifested itself even in the Arian doctrine of the logos as chief among those mediatorial angels.In the light of these various traditions, we can see that ps.-Hilarius, like Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose, focuses his response on the agency of the Son, bypassing the pre-Christian Jewish exegesis that the creator was addressing the angels. Moreover, he addresses the newly formed man as summi cui dextra tonantis/ est pater (the one whose father is the right hand of God, 125-6) reinforcing man's direct issuance from the divinity. Dextra dei is, interestingly, used as an epithet for Christ by a number of contemporaries. Nicetas of Remesiana, for example, uses it in a context similar to that of the composer of the Metrum in Cenesim: Dextera et brachium dicitur [scil. Christus] quia per ipsum universa creata sunt (Right hand and arm he is called for through him all things were created) [Nicetas of Remesiana, De diversis appellationibus lesu Christo convenientibus (PL 52.64) Cf. Faustus of Riez, De Spiritu Sancto I, í l; Cassiodorus, EIpositio in Psalmos 118, 117; Cyprian, Ad Quirinum 2.4. Gregory the Great, however, uses the phrase of the angels; cf. Moralia in Job 2.38.]

The Metrum, then, emphasizes in poetic terms a particular viewpoint regarding the meaning of man's being made in the image of God in which the person of the Son figures prominently. Moreover, that the Son is divine and not a creature is indicated by the poet's assertion that even at the time of creation the Son was with the Father (117-18) The significance of this statement with respect to trinitarian theology should not be overlooked. It was common in pre-Nicene theology to connect the begetting of the Son with the creation of the universe. Ps.-Hilarius' statement reflects the later development of setting the theology of the Trinity free from a connection with cosmology.[J. Daniélou, A Histor,v of Early Christian Doctrine, vol. 3, trans. D. Smith and J. Baker (Phila., London, 1977) pp. 365-6.]

IV. Victorius' Alethia

[The Alethia is a Latin poetic commentary on Genesis attributed to Claudius Marius Victorius (Victor in all edd. before Hovingh) who was, according to Gennadius (De viris illustribus, ch. 61) a rhetor of Marseilles during the mid-fifth century. In its present state the poem ends at Book 3 with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Gennadius, however, indicates that the work continued through the account of Abraham, and in two MSS Gennadius is represented as having described the work in four books. Critics have therefore assumed the loss of the last book. In modern times the text depends on a single MS (Paris Lat.7558) f the ninth century. It is also listed, however, in two monastic library catalogs of the tenth century. Gennadius also claims that the work was dedicated to the poet's son, Aetherius.]Two biblical epics are distinguished from those discussed thus far by their detailed presentations of the Christian doctrine of God. In these works, the Alethia of Victorius and the Laudes Dei (Carmen de Deo) For a brief account of the titles under which the work has been transmitted and a discussion of its genre see Dracontius. Oeuvres, vol. I (Paris, 1985) pp. 45-9] of Dracontius, theological themes are reinforced through more extensive exegetical commentary and more thematically-oriented paraphrasing of the scriptural account. Within the plan of these poems, exegetical motifs provide a series of harmonized lessons in Christian doctrine constructed upon a vividly presented scriptural foundation.The Alethia of Claudius Marius Victorius as we have it consists of three books presenting a versification of Genesis from the creation to the destruction of Sodom. The narrative is interspersed with extensive commentary. A verse preface introduces the narrative, and, as has been discussed above, the poet there states his purpose to-be the formation of young minds and his theme as the origin of the universe, man's fall, and the process of his reconciliation with God [Alethia, Precatio 101-11]. This precatio also contains numerous statements intended as a

44

declaration of the poet's orthodoxy and as first principles of doctrine for readers. Among the central themes are those presently under discussion: the transcendence of God and the mystery of the Trinity. God, Victorius declares, cannot be comprehended by the human mind, but evidence of his being is ever present to the reason (1-4) God is one in three, eternal, unbounded by space and time (5-13) God has no image, neither sensual nor intellectual; all concepts fall short of defining God (14-21) Summe et sancte deus, cunctae uirtutis origo,

omnipotens, quem nec subtili indagine rerummentibus humanis sensu comprendere fas estet nescire nefas; nam te ratione profundain tribus esse deum, sed tres sic credimus unum,ut proprias generis species substantia reddatindiscreta pio conseruans foedera nexu.tu sine principio, pariter sine fine perennissolus semper idem nullique obnoxius aeuo,tu spatium rerum, mentis quocumque recessustenditur, excedis spatio neque cingeris ullo;nec te qui capiat locus est cum rebus alumnis,nec magis ipse locus; nec fas contingere menti,quae sit imago tibi, quia fine coercita nulloforma fugit sensus, uel qui uirtute beatate uegetet motus, quia totus semper ubique es:tu mens et sacrae penitus substantia mentis,tu ratio et plenae prudens rationis origo,tu uirtus, uirtutis apex atque ipsa profecto tu uita et genitor uitae lucisque profundae,tu lux uera, deus, tu rerum causa uigorque.

O Supreme and holy God, source of all virtue, almighty, whom it is not right for human minds to comprehend in sense by an acute investigation of facts, and it is sinful not to know; for we believe that you are in a profound way God in three, but that three is one in such a way that the essence produces particular forms of a kind, maintaining a relationship, inseparable, through a sacred bond. You are without beginning, likewise without end, eternal, the only one, always the same, restricted by no age, you surpass the space of the universe, wherever tends the innermost depths of the mind, nor are you enclosed in any space, and there is no place which may keep you along with matter which serves you, nor are you space itself, nor is it possible for the mind to grasp what image you have because a form that is boundless escapes the senses, or what impulse animates you with abundant power, for you in your entirety are always everywhere. You are mind and the essence of sacred mind within; you are reason and the wise source of full reason; you are power, and surely the very apex of power; you are life and the father of life and light profound. You are true light, God, the cause and energy of the universe. (Precatio, 1-21)

With this transcendent power acknowledged, the themes he wishes to treat are the way in which this power is immanent in the universe, the fall of man, a free creature, and triumph over death effected by the Savior, "the wisdom of the word" (sapientia verbi) Precatio 100) The preface is rich in theological concepts articulated by the church fathers. The opening, for example, has much in common with the ideas on the transcendence of God expressed by Ambrose in relation to the opening of Genesis:Non mirum ergo si deus, qui est sine initio, initium omnibus dedit, ut quae non erant esse inciperent. Non mirum si deus, qui omnia uirtute sua continet et inconprehensibili maiestate uniuersa conplectitur, fecit haec quae uidentur, cum etiam illa fecerit quae non uidentur.No wonder, therefore, that God, who is without a beginning, gave a beginning to all things, so that what was not began to exist. No wonder that God, who contains all things in His power and surrounds the universe with unimaginable majesty, created these things which can be seen, since He also created those which are not visible. [Ambrose, Hexaemeron l.3.9 CSEL 32 pt.1, p.8, trans. J.Savage (Fathers of the Church Vol. 42, p. 9) modified. H.Maurer, De exemplis quae Claudius Marius Victor in Alethia secutus sit (Diss. Marburg, 1896) pp. 8-9, also cites Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum 1.3, 4; 2.10; 2.22; Augustine, De civ. Dei 16.5; Commodian, Carmen de duobus populis vv. 91, 121, 141, 94, 99, 100, 124 ff., 276; Minucius Felix, Octavius 18.17 and 19.

God is supreme and holy (summus et sanctus) He is, moreover, the source of all virtue (virtutis origo) which here denotes goodness and moral excellence as it does when the Latin church fathers

45

use the term of God. [P. Hovingh, C.M. Victorius Alethia, La Prière, ef les vers 1-170 du livre I avec introduction, traduction. et commentaire (Groningen, 1955) p. 73, cites Ambrose's and Augustine's references to God as fons and origo virtutum, in which the moral attributes of fortitude, justice, and moderation, etc. are enumerated. Cf. Maurer, De exemplis. Both agree on Ambrose as the major influence.] That his being is incomprehensible and yet that it is right for him to be known in a limited way is a paradox also expressed by many Fathers. [Hovingh, ibid., cites Tertullian, Apol., 17.2; Min. Felix, Ocf. 18.7; Hil., De Trinifate, 1.7; and Lac., De op. Dei, 1.1l, among others.] To this paradox Victorius joins the positive reference to the unity of God in Trinity, which he exp~esses through the distinction between the underlying divine substantia and the individual species. [Cf Hovingh, íbid., p. 74]. He also echoes one of the most famous refrains from the Ordinary of the Mass in calling upon God in Trinity for inspiration to teach without error [Cf. e.g. Missale gothicum, ed. L.C. Mohlberg (Augsburg, 1929, repr. Rome, 1960) passim. The Missale is believed to have been written for the church of Autun ca 700, but the formularies are older]:

Te, deus alme, precor...per lesum Christum, qui filius unice tecummaiestate uigens pariter qua spiritus almusindeprensa animis saeclorum saecula uiuitet regnat.

I ask this of you, good God... through Jesus Christ, who, as son, living uniquely in majesty with you in the same manner as the good spirit, lives and reigns through ages of ages unknown to minds. (Precatio 101, 123-6)

It has also been observed that this enumeration of the divine attributes contained in the first twenty-one lines of the poem shows that the poet had an affinity with theologians influenced by NeoPlatonism, including Augustine, Ambrose and Hilary, who tirelessly emphasized those attributes which Victorius presents here: namely that God exists outside of time and space and the grasp of the human spirit.[See Hovingh, ibid., p. 75. In fact what F.E. Robbins has written of Augustine may be said equally of Victorius: "God - Father, Son, and Spirit - exists without beginning or end, outside of time and space in an eternity in which there is no temporal or spatial movement, but all parts of it are ever present. Without going to the extreme of the neo-Platonists and declaring that God is wholly without attributes, Augustine shows by his language that he borrowed suggestions from them" (The Hexaemeral Literature [Chicago, 19í2], p. 20)

After the precatio, Victorius takes up the theme as he begins his treatment of the first verse of Genesis. He expands the limits of his narrative to consider the problem of God's state of existence before the creation. His answer presents the opportunity to refer again to the doctrine that the Trinity is coeternal and absolute:

Ante polos caelique diem mundique tenebras,ante operum formas uel res uel semina rerum,aeternum sine fine retro, sine fine futuri esse subest cui semper, erat deus unus, apud quemuiuebat genitus uerbum deus et simul almusspiritus, arcani uitalis summa uigoris.Una trium quo se uegetans substantia nexuingenita [sese] semper uirtute beabatregnabatque potens...

Immensum mole beataregnum erat ipse suum, regni nec teste carebat,uirtus trina deus.

Before the heavens and the sky's daylight and the world's darkness, before the forms of matter or matter itself or the elements of matter, there was one God whose being exists always, eternal, without limit in past or future, with whom the Word, God begotten, lived, and the good spirit, living focus of hidden energy. One substance of three unbegotten, by which bond giving itself life, was blessed unto itself and reigned, powerful... Infinite in blessed greatness he was his own kingdom, nor did he lack a witness of the kingdom, God, triple power. (1.1-9; 13-15)

In this way, Victorius' amplification of the first phrase of Genesis, in principio, constitutes another reflection upon the eternal, triune, and unbounded divinity. Ambrose gives the same lesson in connection with the beginning of Genesis, first on the transcendence of God:

46

deum cognosceres ante initium mundi esse uel ipsum esse initium uniuersorum. [Moses spoke thus: "In the beginning..." so that] you might understand that God existed before the beginning of the world or that he was himself the beginning of all things. [Ambrose, Hexaemeron 1.2.5, CSEL 32 pt. 1, p. 4.]

It is especially significant that the parallel emphases between Ambrose and Victorius are not restricted to the notion of divine transcendence but extend to the second of the two themes, that of the correspondence of the persons of the Trinity. Ambrose summarized his treatment of the first day of creation by teaching that this activity was performed by God in all three persons: in quo conditum caelum, terram creatam, aquarum exundantiam, circum fusum aerem, discretionem factam lucis atque tenebrarum dei omnipotentis et domini Iesu Christi, sancti quoque spiritus operatione cognouimus (On this day we know that the heavens were founded, the earth was created, the waters and the air were sent forth around us, and a separation was made between light and darkness, by the work of the omnipotent God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, together with the Holy Spirit) [Ibid.]

This does not mean that Victorius simply followed a source such as Ambrose down every exegetical path. Rather, he was selective in his employment of the Fathers' interpretations where they wrote as individuals. Although he used forty-seven verses in commenting on the significance of the opening words of Genesis "In the beginning," he does not apply, for example, Ambrose's mystical trinitarian interpretation of "In the beginning" as meaning "in Christ" because "all things were made through him and without him was made nothing that was made." [Ambrose, Hex. 1.4.13-14 citing Jn. 1:3. See also Augustine, conf. 12.15, 20. ] Similarly, we find in Ambrose an explicit commentary on Gen. 1:26, in which the pluralfaciamus hominem ... was used as a proof text of the multiplicity and equality of persons in the godhead. [Ambr., Hex. 6.7.40-47]. Victorius, however, avoids this exegetical commonplace and presents the verse literally:

"Nunc hominem faciamus," ait "qui regnet in orbeet sit imago dei. Similem decet esse creanti."

"Now let us make man," [God] says, "to reign in the world and be the image of God. It is fitting that he be like his creator." (Alethia 1.160-61) By contrast, the poem does include exegetical material drawn from the traditions of Christ's visitations to the Old Testament patriarchs, such as the identification of Christ as the Father's Word, who addressed Abraham and promised him innumerable descendants (Gen. 15:6-7)

atque ideo hic sancti uirtus tam nobilis Abramprodit quod bene sit diuino credere Christo,qui, uox uiua patris, rursum sic fatus ad Abram:"omnipotens ego sum dominus, qui teque tuosquechaldea de gente tuli."

Thus at this point the virtue of so holy and so excellent Abraham showed that it is well to believe Christ divine. He living voice of the Father, in this way addressed Abraham again "I am the Lord Almighty, who brought you and your family out of the nation of Chaldea." (3.489-93)

Similar to this exegesis is Victorius' presentation of the three visitors who subsequently come to Abraham and are treated hospitably by him (Gen. 18:1 ff.) Victorius follows the tradition, endorsed by Novatian, of interpreting one of the three as Christ. In other places in the narrative, however, where similar identifications with Christ were also traditional, Victorius presents the literal narrative without commentary. The messenger to Hagar, for example, who tells her to return to Sarai and who promises her a multitude of descendents, is simply called angelus just as in the Latin Bible. [Dixit autem ei angelus domini revertere?(Gen. 13 9) Cyprianus (Gen s72) efers to the messenger as nuntius, but also without commentary.] Moreover, the poet chose to omit the content of Gen. 1 6:1 3, which was used by Christian exegetes as proof that Christ in his visitations to the figures of the Old Testament is sometimes called angel. [For this tradition see Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, Vol. 1, pp. 182-4.] Novatian, for example, uses the episode of Hagar's encounter with the angel to demonstrate again that only Christ, Son of God, could be meant, since he is the only one who could rightly be called both God and angel: Ac si et Agar, ancillam Sarrae, de domo eiectam pariter et fugatam angelus conuenit apud fontem aquae in uia Sur, fugae causas interrogat... hunc autem angelum et Dominum scriptura proponit et Deum... Ergo si hic locus neque personae Patris congruit, ne angelus dictus sit, neque personae angeli, ne Deus pronuntiatus sit, personae autem Christi conuenit, ut et Deus sit, quia Dei Filius est, et angelus sit, quoniam paternae dispositionis annuntiator est.And when an angel met Hagar, Sarah's maidseFvant, at a spring of water on the road to Shur when

47

she had been banished from her home and put to ílight, and he asked her the reasons for her flight ... Scripture portrays this angel as both Lord and God ... Therefore, if this passage is not appropriate to the person of the Father, lest he be called an angel, nor to the person of an angel les~ he be called God, it does, however, suit the person of Christ, considering that he is God, inasmuch as he is the Son of God, and an angel, inasmuch as he is the herald of the Father's dispensation. [Novatian, DeTrinitate 18.7-10, CCL 4.44-5, trans. R.DeSimone O.S.A. Fathers of the Church, Vol. 67, pp. 68-9, modified.]

Since the poet has already made explicit the connection between Christ and a messenger in a similar account, he apparently saw no reason to repeat the exegetical type here but rather made Gen. 16:13 one of the passages which he indicated he must "pass over in haste." [Alethia 1.144-6.] In light of his earlier appellation of Christ as vox patris, however, even his statement, corresponding to Gen. 17:1ff., that the pater almus made the covenant with Abraham, is qualified by his description that it was alone "by means of the customary language" (solito alloquio 3.585-6) This may have been intended to evoke what was said earlier, namely that the Father's messages were made known through the Son.

V. Dracontius' Laudes Dei

[Dracontius was a North African poet of the late fifth century. He received a literary educafion, then studied and practiced law in Carthage. One of his poems from this early period, addressed to a foreign ruler, brought upon him the disfavor of Gunthamund, King of the Vandals in North Africa (484-96) His release came with the help of friends but not before he was interned long enough to write his two Christian poems, Satisfactio and Laudes Dei.

The Laudes Dei is a didactic poem in three books totalling over 2,200 hexameters. It treats of God's goodness and merciful forbearance. Examples of this are drawn from the Creation, the Incarnation of Christ, and God's dealings with the human race.]

In the previous century, S. Gamber related this poem's theme, the glory of pietas Dei, to the theological concept of divine grace. ["Célébrer la grâce divine (pietas) qui se manifeste surtout dans la création du monde, preuverque Dieu ne veut pas détruire mais conserver le genre humain, pour lequel il a fait cet univers et toutes les merveilles qu'il renferme, tel est le motif qui a inspiré à Dracontius le Carmen de Deo?" (Le Livre de la Genèse, p. 33) The recent editor of the first two books of Laudes Dei, C.Camus, writes: "Ce qui fait l'unité du poème est la célébration de la gloire de Dieu, dont Dracontius loue surtout la piétas, la bonté miséricordieuse" (Dracontius. Oeuvres, p. 45)

The correlation accurately describes the emphasis of the poem's narrative elements as well as its explicit commentary. Pietas Dei as revealed by Dracontius is identical in many specific respects with the Augustinian doctrine of grace as much as a near contemporary can be expected to have understood it. It even compares well with a modern description of the Augustinian concept: Grace, for Augustine, is God's freedom to act without any external necessity whatsoever - to act in love beyond human understanding or control; to act in creation, judgment, and redemption; to give his Son freely as Mediator and Redeemer. [Albert C. Outler, ed., Augustine: Confessions. Enchiridion. Library of Christian Classics (Phila. 1955) p. 14.]A more recent student of the genre, Jacques Fontaine, also sees the rich Augustinian coloration of Dracontius' endeavor in the many antitheses the poet sets in balance: "the goodness of God and the fault of man; the grandeur of the Creatiòn and the wretchedness of the creature; the beauty of the world and the ugliness of suffering and of sin: Augustinian colors." ["Bonté de Dieu et culpabilité de l'homme, grandeur de la Création et misère de la créature; beauté de monde et hideur de la souffrance et du péché: Couleurs Augustiniennes?" (Jacques Fontaine, Naissance de la poésie dans l'occident chrétien (Paris, 1987) . 254) This viewpoint is endorsed by Camus (Drocontius. Oeuvres) p. 73. Camus also suggests the influence of Origen (p. 239, n. to 1.20)

Dracontius' theme is more than a celebration of the quality of mercy; his reflections on God also suggest a deep respect for divine providence. He was undoubtedly influenced to write as he did by his "personal miseries," but overriding those temporal cares is a sense of awe before divine omnipotence and a "genuine belief in the goodness of God." [A. Hudson-Williams, "Notes on the Christian Poems of Dracontius," Classical Quarterly 41 (1947) 95.]

Although divine mercy is paradigmatic of what Dracontius, imprisoned and suffering royal wrath, hoped to receive from King Gunthamund, mercy is one of the innumerable, all-encompassing divine attributes which Dracontius' frequent litanies celebrate. Essentially, the poet strives to have his readers reflect upon the transcendent authority of God, from whom all

48

descends and under whose sway all remains. The present worldly condition, however wretched, is a reflection of mankind's spiritual depravity, but our restoration, fortunately, depends upon God. It is the very theme which occupied Augustine: "the sovereign God of grace and the sovereign grace of God." [Outler, ed., Augustine: Confessions. Enchuidion, p. 14.] The poet's concern for his immediate fate at the hands of Gunthamund must be measured against this infinite power and control. For his "crying in fervid prayerfor restoration to favour" [E.S. Duckett, Latin Writers of the Fifth Century (New York, 1930, repr. 1969) p. 87. It is of course important to the poet that his composition move the king toward mercy, but one should not confilse this aim with the poem's theme.] in the eyes of Gunthamund pales against his faith in mankind's position in God's hands.

Moreover, that Laudes Dei is first and foremost a serious work is evident from the author's own prefatory remarks. Knowledge of God as sovereign creator and sustainer of the universe, especially through the manifestations of his anger and placidity, is the first topic treated.

Qui cupit iratum placidumue scire Tonantem,hoc carmen, sed mente legat, dum uoce recenset.

He who wishes to know the one who thunders, angry or peaceful, let him use the voice while recounting this poem, but let him read with his mind. (1.1-2)

According to the poet, the attentive reader will acquire knowledge of him whom nature venerates and obeys as creator. From God, who is without beginning and who knows no end, are derived all conditions of nature - sufferings as well as benefits. God's eternal pietas, however, restrains nature so that misfortune does not come without warning. Since nature can be vengeful, God's restraining hand provides sinful humanity with opportunity for reconciliation. [1.3-23.]

This absolute but merciful sovereignty, the essence of divinepietas, is what the poet stresses in his presentation of God's relationship with man. Thus, to begin his account of the fall of Adam and Eve, he comments that God's own awareness of his absolute power is what engenders his mercy:

Tot bona facta Deus non obliuiscitur unquam,quae propter hominem fecit sanxitque manere.Huic dominus pietatis opem subducere non uult,addicet nec plasma suum. Scit conditor aeui esse nihil prorsus praeter se ubique rogandumet nisi subueniat, succurrens non erit ullus.Inde malo bonus est homini Deus, omnibus auctorspes opifex dominus rector dux arbiter index,continua pietate bonus, uirtute modestus,simplicitate pius, sed culmine celsior omni.

God does not ever forget the many good things, which he made on account of man and has ordained to endure. The Lord does not want to withdraw the wealth of his goodwill toward man, nor will he abandon his own work. The Creator of time knows that absolutely nothing can be asked for anywhere beyond him and unless he comes to man's rescue, there will not be anyone to do it. Hence God is good to the man who is evil, for all the creator, hope, maker, lord, ruler, chief, judge, guide, good with constant trust, measured in his use of power, goodwilled in simplicity, but more eminent than every greatness. (1.427-36)

It has been observed that this discourse, placed immediately after the poet's account of the work of the Hexaemeron, reflects the Augustinian exegesis on the meaning of God's "rest" on the seventh day. [Draconlius Oeuvres, p. 298 note on line 1.427.] Dracontius, in fact, allows this commentary to stand in place of a narrative, since no reference to the seventh-day rest of God appears in the poem. It was Augustine's point, echoing earlier Jewish exegesis, that God's rest signified an end of the creation of new kinds of things. It did not mean that God ceased caring for his creation. He continued to work in the sense that he sustained all that which he had already created. For without God's continued beneficence, the universe would immediately cease to exist, as its existence depends entirely on the creator's good will. Dracontius points out that tot bona facta Deus non obliviscitur unquam (427) Dracontius' references to God, however, contain other lessons than those related to grace. He also makes specific references to the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, qualifying what he says about God with doctrinal formulas. An explicit and theologically rich example of this tendency occurs in an extended commentary in 2.60 ff.:

Quo libuit genuisse Deum ante omnia Christum,semine quem uerbo conceptum corde ferebas,

49

quo sine non unquam fuerat mens sancta parentis,multa profunda potens sollers pia prouida perpessimplex celsa leuis uibrans immensa serenauiuida cunctiparens mens innumerabilis una.Ergo Deum Deus auctor ouans eructuat ore.Corde sacer genitus mox constitit ipse parenti,et consors cum patre manens et spiritus unus,trina mente Deus, Deus auctor, temporis expers,multiplici uirtute potens, pietate modestusinnumera.

By this [speech] it was pleasing that God had begotten Christ before all else, conceived from the seed, that is, the word which you were bringing forth from your heart, without which there had never been the sacred mind of the Father; great, profound, powerful, ingenious, true, provident, everlasting, simple, exalted, gentle, scintillating, immeasurable, serene, living parent of all, mind, innumerable, one. And so God the Creator, rejoicing, utters God from his mouth. Immediately the holy one himself, begotten from the heart, exists with the Father, both abiding as partner with the Father and forming one Spirit, God with triple mind, God the creator, having no part in time, potent with multiple power, restrained with measureless affection. (2.60-71)

This testimony, beginning a long discourse on the Incarnation, attests to Dracontius' efforts to reflect on the essential theological mysteries in light of the doctrines articulated in the orthodox formulas. The project entaiís considerable obstacles, however, due to the subtlety of the theological concepts. Yet the poet's language gives evidence of familiarity with significant concepts related to the trinitarian doctrine. His statement that Christ had been begotten before all things (ante omnia) for example, anticipates the Latin version of the Nicene phrase ante omnia saecula [The Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed acquired authoritative staíus in the East by the late 5th c. A Latin version is included in a MS. of Dionysius Exiguus (early 6th c.) and the Creed was used in the liturgy in the West by the end of that century.] and stands in contrast to Arian claims that the Son was begotten of the Father in a sequential manner. As if to ensure that the phrase would be properly understood, the idea that the Son is coeternal with the Father is reinforced by the comment that the mens sancta parentis, an epithet for Christ echoing Tertullian, had never existed without the Son. [Dracontius. Oeuvres, p. 332, n. to 2.62.]

Then, in another phrase evoking the Nicene Creed, deum de deo, the poet employs the Logos imagery in describing the begetting of the Son. In a clear reflection on the begetting of the Logos, the act of God proceeding from God, he writes, is an utterance from the divine mouth (deum deus eructuat ore) The Son, therefore, exists eternally as a consors cum patre, an expression which recalls Hilary's reflections on the implications of Gen. 1:26. The use of the plural prior to the creation of man in "Let us make," the bishop argued, would be inappropriate if God had been alone and without a companion. Sustulit singularis intellegentiam professione consortii. Consortium autem esse aliquod solitario ipsi sibi non potest (He has destroyed the sense of the singular by the expression of companionship. But there can be no companionship for a solitary by himself)

At the same time, however, it says "in our image," instead of "images," whereby cognita... unius in utroque proprietate naturae (the property of one nature was understood to be in each) [ Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate 4.17-18, CCL 62.120-21.] For Dracontius, the bond of this relationship is the one spirit (spiritus unus) just as it is for Hilary: indifferens natura f lii esse credatur a Patre, cum Spiritus Sanctus, qui et Spiritus Christi et Spiritus Dei est, res naturae esse demonstretur unius (Let the nature of the Son be believed to be the same as the nature of the Father, since the Holy Spirit, who is both the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God, is shown to be a reality of one nature) [Hilary,De Trinitate 8.26, CCL 62A.337-8. Forres as a term of distinction among the persons of the Trinity cf. Tertullian, Adversus Praxean 7.5.] Thus is described God the creator (Deus auctor) ogether forming God with triple sense (trina mente Deus) a formula reminiscent of Cyprianus.

Dracontius continues to elaborate on the doctrines of the divine transcendence, the Incarnation and the Trinity: Deus ... non capiendus ab isdem (God is not limited by these things [heaven and earth], 2.8992) The glorious mystery, however, is that this transcendent God clal stra puerperii passus sub lege creandi (allowed himself to be enclosed in a mother's womb, subject to the principle of procreation, 2.93). The poet also uses this occasion to refute directly and specifically the Subordinationism of the Arians:

Ergo ubi corporeos artus dominator et auctor

50

induit et caelum patri seruire reliquitut putat insipiens omnis rationis egenus,nam quicumque sapit nouit quia sic tulit artuset fuit in terris, ut nec caeleste tribunallinqueret, omnipotens nunquam sine patre probatus,nam pius et genitor nunquam sine pignore dictus,spiritus immensus sanctus bonus arbiter index,tertius unus idem primus mediusque perennis...

Therefore, when the master and creator put on bodily limbs and left heaven to serve his Father - as reckons the fool deprived of all reason, for whoever has sense knows that he became incarnate and was on earth in such a way that he did not abandon his heavenly throne; never recognized as the Almighty without the Father, for God is never called loving and Father without the Son, nor the Spirit infinite, holy, good judge and guide - the first, second and third are one, the same, and eternal... (2.98-106)

This commentary strikes at the heart of the Arian consideration of the Son and Holy Spirit as creatures capable of carrying out the Father's will but created in time and not consubstantial with him. Given the historical circumstances, it was a bold endeavor on Dracontius' part to speak in such definite, polemical theological terms, and it suggests a vivid concern for the doctrinal correctness of his work. Arianism was very much alive in Africa during the composition of the poem, and its numbers included King Gunthamund himself, by whom the poet was being held in prison. Fortunately, Gunthamund was more tolerant than the other Vandal kings in Africa, and his reign even witnessed periods of relaxation of the long years of Arian persecution of Catholics. Encouraged by this leniency, or perhaps with sufficient disregard for his position as prisoner, the poet emphasizes the equality and consubstantiality of the Father and Son. Because of this consubstantiality, the Incarnation in no way suggests his removal from the person of the Father in heaven. He is not a mere messenger sent a latere but the one God in the person of the Son. This teaching, namely that the logos could be said to reside eternally with the Father in heaven and yet have become incarnate, was not lost on the church fathers. With the support of such scriptural passages as "I am in the Father and the Father in me" (Jn. 14: 11) nd "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Coloss. 2:9) proponents of the Nicene formula such as Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, made constant reference to the point Dracontius makes here. On the one hand Athanasius taught that the Incarnation did not mean that the Logos was previously distant from the creation "for no part of creation is left deprived of him, but he fills the universe, being in union with his Father." [Athanasius, De Incarnatione 8, ed. and trans. Robert W. Thomson, (Oxford, 1971) p. 151.] On the other hand he pointed out, as does Dracontius, that the Incarnation does not mean that the Word was at that time limited to the space occupied by the body. He remained complete in everything in his Father: He was not enclosed in the body, nor was he in the body but nowhere else. Nor did he move the latter while the universe was deprived of his action and providence. But what is most wonderful is that, being the Word, he was not contained by anyone, but rather himself contained everything. And as he is in all creation, he is in essence outside the universe but in everything by his power, ordering everything and extending his providence over everything. And giving life to all, separately and together, he contains the universe and is not contained, but in his Father only he is complete in everything. [Ibid. ch. 17, p. 175.]

The Latin West had on this theological issue an influential spokesman in Augustine, who gave a detailed analysis of the error in thinking that Christ's Incarnation required a separation from the Father:Qui si eo modo uisibilis fieret ut cum patre inuisibilis esse desisteret, id est si substantia inuisibilis uerbi in creaturam uisibilem mutata et transiens uerteretur, ita missus a patre intellegeretur filius ut tantum missus non etiam cum patre mittens inueniretur. Cum uero sic accepta est forma serui ut maneret incommutabilis forma dei, manifestum est quod a patre et filio non apparentibus factum sit quod appareret in filio, id est ab inuisibili patre cum inuisibili fílio idem ipse filius uisibilis mitteretur.If he became visible in such a way as to cease to be invisible with the Father, that is, if the substance of the invisible Word were turned, having been changed and passing into a visible creature then the Son would be so understood to be sent by the Father that he would be found to be only sent, not also with the Father, sending. But when he took the form of a servant, so that the unchangeable form of God remained, it is clear that that which became apparent in the Son was

51

done by the Father and the Son not being apparent; that is, that by the invisible Father, with the invisible Son, the same Son himself was sent so as to be visible. [Augustine, De Trinitate 2.5.9, CCL 50, p. 92, trans. A. W. Haddan, Nicene and PostNicene Fathers, Ist ser., Vol. 3, p. 41, modified.]

The briefer mention of the Holy Spirit in this phase of Dracontius' commentary is understandable in light of the central topic: Incarnation. It is also reflective of the lesser amount of attention given to the third person in the collective body of early literature on the Trinity. But the poem does contain an elaboration of the idea of the Spirit as bestower of life in an interesting passage indebted to an early exegetical tradition. [The present discussion of this exegetical tradition is treated more fully in my "Benevolent Winds and the Spirit of God in De laudibus Dei of Dracontius," Vigiliae Christianae 43 (1989) 282-92.]

In his version of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise after their sin, Dracontius attests to God's continued provision for the couple despite their fall. He again praises the triune God for his power and benevolence:

Solus in aeternum Deus est regnator et auctor,uinus trina Deus, triplex Deus omnis et unus,de quo speratum conceditur omne benignum.

God alone is forever ruler and creator, God the threefold power, triple God all and one, from whom is granted every kindness that is hoped for. (1.562-4)

He then presents God's blessing upon the couple to subdue the earth (Gen. 1:18) an episode which he withheld until after their expulsion into the world-at-large. He makes the point of emphasizing that the couple are to be served by all the elements of nature. At this point the poet stops to consider in detail one of the elements, the benevolent spiritus, first in terms of its manifestations. Spiritus serves incorporeally in the animating power of wind, which brings life to all vegetation ( 1.58~90). It also serves as the very life-breath of men and animals (1.591-9). Then, the poet comments that all of these are actually manifestations of the Spirit of God, one of the Trinity which Dracontius calls here source, artificer and life-force of all:

Spiritus ille Dei, quo corpora cuncta mouentur,omnia complectens agitat fouet inserit urget,unde genus diuersa trahunt et semina rerum.Molis ab immenso uenientia fonte perenni artificis formante manu digesta uomunturordine cuncta suo.

[It is] that spirit of God by which all bodies are moved; which, embracing everything, stirs it, nourishes it, makes it productive, and impels it, whence even the diverse elements of matter derive their birth. All things coming from the infinite and eternal Source of matter arranged by the hand of the Artificer, are discharged in their own order [scil. by the spiritus]. (1.600-05)

In this interesting connection of spiritus, mollifier of the expulsion, animator of vegetation and life breath in all, with the divine spirit, the poet presents a theological position reminiscent of the early Tertullian, a major source of much of his theological commentary, rather than that of Augustine, his main source. [See Tertullian, De Baptismo 3.2; 5.1. Cf. Origen, De principiis 1.3.6. Regarding Tertullian's position, J. Daniélou (History of Early Christian Doctrine, Vol. 3, 3737) oints out that Tertullian later changed his viewpoint on the identity of the Holy Spirit with the soul in man.] For while Tertullian saw a close connection, for example, between thepneuma in man and the spirit of God, Augustine championed the case against such a general association. In Book 13 of the City of God, Augustine examines the question by asking whether the human spiritus, which Gen. 2:7 relates was breathed into Adam, is the same as the Holy Spirit. He compares this passage with the account of Christ's imparting of the Holy Spirit to his disciples after the Resurrection (Jn. 20:22) He opposes the error of some, whom he does not identify, who have assumed that there is no difference between the meaning of spiritus in the two passages. For him, although the same word is used, the former reference to the breath of life is not to be equated with the spiritus of the latter passage, which truly is the Holy Spirit:

unde et illud parum considerate quibusdam uisum est, in eo quod legitur: "Inspirauit Deus in faciem eius spiritum uítae, et factus est homo in animam uiuentem," non tunc animam primo homini datam, sed eam, quae iam inerat, Spiritu Sancto uiuificatam.

By not reflecting sufficiently on the text: "God breathed into his face the breath of life and

52

man became a living soul," some here supposed that it means, not that a soul was then bestowed on the first man, but that the soul which he already possessed was vivified by the Holy Spirit. [Augustine, De civitateDei, 13.24 (CCL 48, pp. 408-09) trans. G. Walsh and G. Monahan (Fathers of the Church, Vol. 14, p. 339). Avitus adopts this argumení in his refuíaíion of Arianism (Contra Arrianos, MGH Auctores Antiquissimi 6.2, pp. 13-14)

Augustine thus rejected the close connection between the spiritus which animates all life and the Holy Spirit itself. But other Christian writers were not so reluctant to speak in terms like those of Dracontius. The poet's discourse reflecting this more inclusive tradition regarding the nature of the Holy Spirit is likely the result of a conscious choice on his part, as there remained in the fifth century considerable ambiguity and a variety of teachings on the Spirit. Although dogmatic formulation regarding the third person of the Trinity already existed in the fourth century, as articles from the Council of Constantinople (381) take evident, elaborations on these formulas waited until the Middle Ages. As has been shown, Augustine himself referred to the opposing viewpoint with enough critical vigor to indicate that the universalism suggested by Dracontius still had considerable support.

VI. Avitus' De spiritalis historiae gestis[This poet was Bishop of Vienne from 490, when he succeeded his father to that post, until his death ca 518.]

Exegetical allusiveness was brought to a high level of development in the last of the biblical epics of this era, De spiritalis historiae gestis of Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus. This poem dramatically portrays the creation and fall of the first couple (Books 1-3) s a testimony to the human race's fallen nature, and the Great Flood (Book 4) nd Crossing of the Red Sea (Book 5) as figures of the process of salvation. The poet's control of the biblical narrative to illustrate his particular theme and his skill in presenting character motivation and action have been appreciated by many scholars, some of whom, as K. Forstner and W. Ehlers have recently acknowledged, consider the Spiritual History the high point of the late antique biblical epic. [Karl Forstner, "Zu Bibeldichtung des Avitus von Vienne," in Symmicta Pfligersdorffer (Rome, 1980) p. 46. Wilhelm Ehlers, "Bibelszenen in epischer Gestalt: Ein Beitrag zu Alcimus Avitus," Vigiliae Christianae 39 (1985) 353. Cf. Roberts, Biblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase, p. 103 and n. 163.] Avitus' tendency to present a specific Christian interpretation of these Old Testament episodes is readily apparent. His consistency of theme, particularly his affinity with the Augustinian emphasis on fallen man's utter need of salvation and fortunate reception of it through Christ, can be witnessed in the numerous personal reflections and digressions contained in each book. Free from the strict sequence of the scriptural narrative, it is not so much designed, as was Victorius' Alethia, to comment on the theological significance of the narrative sequentially as the various loci in the Bible are encountered. Rather, it focuses on those exegetical motifs which are directly related to its theme, handling others more allusively. In this the Spiritual History more closely resembles Dracontius' LaudesDei, its North African near-contemporary. As in the African poem, concern for thec.logical focus led the writer to select and arrange various episodes, using them to illustrate the theme which Avitus himself declares at the beginning of the work, the movement from sin to salvation:

Quidquid agit varios humana in gente labores,unde brevem carpunt mortalia tempora vitam,vel quod polluti vitiantur origine mores,quos aliena premunt priscorum facta parentum(addatur quamquam nostra de parte reatus)quod tamen amisso dudum peccatur honoreadscribam tibi, prime pater, qui semine mortistollis succiduae vitalia germina proli.Et licet hoc totum Christus persolverit in se,contraxit quantum percussa in stirpe propago,attamen auctoris vitio, qui debita leti instituit morbosque suis ac funera misit,vivit peccati moribunda in carne cicatrix.

First father, [Adam], who with the seed of death destroy the living shoots of a tender stock, I shall attribute to you whatever sets into motion humanity's various sufferings, whence our life span is so short, and the fact that our character, corrupted from its source, is spoiled, weighed down by the deeds of others, namely our ancient parents (although guilt is added on our own account) and the

53

fact that, although our honor was lost long ago, we still sin. And granted that Christ repaid in himself the entire amount, as much as the race on its blighted stock had incurred, yet because of the sin of the progenitor, who established the debt of death and transmitted disease and ruin to his offspring, the scar of sin survives on flesh that is doomed to die. (1.1-13) Moreover, the poem ends by marking the completion of this theme of sin and redemption in the establishment of baptism:Inclitus egregium sollemni carmine ductor

describit factum, toto quod psallitur orbe,cum purgata sacris deletur culpa fluentisemittitque novam parientis lympha lavacri prolem post veteres, quos edidit Eva, reatus.De qua sermonem praemisso carmine sumpsit,luctificos replicat tenuis dum pagina lapsus.Si quid triste fuit, dictum est quod paupere versu,terserit hic sacri memorabilis unda triumphi,gaudia quo resonant, crimen quo tollitur omneper lavacrum vivitque novus pereunte veterno;quo bona consurgunt, quo noxia facta necantur,Israhel verus sacris quo tingitur undis;consona quo celebrat persultans turba tropaeum,quo praecurrentes conplentur dona figurae,quas pius explicuit per quinque volumina vates.nosque tubam stipula sequimur numerumque tenenteshoc tenui cumbae ponemus litore portum.

The glorious leader (Moses) describes this outstanding event in a religious song, which is sung throughout the world when sin is destroyed, cleansed by holy waters, and the water of the bath that gives birth produces a new offspring after the sinners of old whom Eve produced. Concerning this outcome our poor page undertook to speak when it told of woeful falls. If anything was offensive because it was said in poor verse, the remarkable wave of the holy victory will cleanse it, when joys resound, when every sin is removed by the bath and the new man lives after the old one has perished, when good deeds arise and the harmful are destroyed, when the true Israel is steeped in the sacred waves, when the throng rejoicing in harmony celebrates the victory, when the figures which preceded the gifts are fulfilled, the figures which the faithful prophet unfolded in five books. And we follow the trumpet with a reed pipe, and maintaining the number on this shore we give harbor to our fragile craft. (5.704 21) Despite the structural and even thematic similarities with the Laudes Dei, the two poets differed in their choice of material from the body of exegetical themes. Regarding the theological topics presently under examination, it has been seen that Dracontius, in developing his theme of the pietas Dei, took special care to present both the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation in a number of extended commentaries. It should be remembered that he chose to address these topics emphatically despite their being at the center of the Arian controversy and even though he was imprisoned by an Arian king while he wrote. Avitus also lived among Arians. Although he was a Gallo-Roman bishop, he was in regular contact with Gundobad, the Arian king of the Burgundians, and his court. Unlike Dracontius, however, Avitus enjoyed reasonably good relations with his Arian king, whose realm, during his son's time, was to lose its autonomy to the Catholic forces of Clovis' sons. Moreover, with regard to the theological dispute between Arians and the orthodox, chiefly involving definition of the Son's relation to the Father in the Trinity, we possess portions of a prose treatise which Avitus wrote for the king, as well as several letters defending the orthodox doctrine in response to Gundobad's inquiries. Gregory of Tours notes that the bishop even succeeded in obtaining the king's request to receive an orthodox baptism privately. When Avitus refused, it was only the king's fear of a resultant decline in popular opinion that kept him from consenting to a public conversion. [Hist. Franc. 2.34. See also Librorum contra Arrianos reliquiae, ed. Peiper, MGH Auctores Antiquissimi 6.2, pp. 1-15. For a discussion of Avitus' relationship with Gundobad see Harry Rosenberg, "Bishop Avitus of Vienne and the Burgundian Kingdom, A. D.494-518," Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 3 (1982) 1-12.]

It is also known that Avitus was to correspond with Gundobad over another relevant theological issue, that concerning Christ's two natures, [Contra Eutychianam haeresim libri II (ibid., pp. 15-29) This document is dated after 512 by Peiper.] and even instructed the king on the issue of final penance. The documents confirm Avitus' willingness to engage in theological discussion, and his writings bespeak a vigorous and generally knowledgeable orthodoxy, even if

54

he did misapply the names Nestorius and Eutyches to positions in the christological controversy. [The judgment of P. Courcelle (Late Latin Writers and Their Greek Sources, p. 251) hat Avitus' interpretation of doctnnal quarrels was inept is too harsh. lt is based largely on Avitus' confusion of the names of the proponents in the Christological controversy rather than the substantive arguments of the respective sides.] The writings Contra Arrianos show, moreover, that the doctrine of the Trinity was among the themes he could treat competently with reference to the Genesis account. One of the biblical episodes which Avitus handles in this prose work is the appearance of the three messengers to Abraham (Gen. 18:1 ff.) which had already been the subject of exegetical commentary in verse by Cyprianus, Victorius and Prudentius. Avitus, in language and emphasis reminiscent of Augustine's exegesis, argues that since Abraham saw three visitors equal in appearance but addressed only one, he understood a figure of the mystery of three divine persons in one divine substance:

Certe non in aliquo horum trium aut cultior habitus aut eminentior forma praestabat. Et tamen Abraham sacramentum indivisae divinitatis intellegens uno nomine tres precatur, quia trina in unitate persona et una est in trinitate substantia.

Surely not in any one of these three did the apparel stand out as more elegant nor the form as more noble. And yet Abraham, recognizing the mystely of the undivided godhead, invokes the three with one name, because there is a triune person in unity and one substance in a Trinity. [Avitus, Contra Arrianos, ed. Peiper, p. 8.]

This is a more subtle interpretation of the visits to Abraham and Lot than those given by Cyprianus or Victorius. Avitus, in the manner of Augustine, refuses to equate any of the messengers directly with any of the persons of the Trinity but supports the figural connection between the account of the visitation and trinitarian theology. The messengers are not God, nor is any one of them Christ, but the account presents a historical figure of the trinitarian nature of God. Thus Avitus derives full theological benefit from the episode and its exegetical tradition without dangerous anachronism. Likewise in his poetry he avoids his predecessors' more simplisitic equation of the visitors with God. Although he does not include the portion of the account which describes the three visitors to Abraham, he does include the subsequent event which describes the visit of two of the messengers to Lot. The primary purpose of including this episode was not to reflect upon the nature of God but to provide a counterpart to Eve in Lot's wife and a foil to Adam in Lot. Thus the earlier visit to Abraham, which is not related, was outside his main theme. This is one of many cases where biblical episodes which support strictly theological exegesis are subordinated in the Spiritual History to anthropological ones. However, Avitus may also have been alluding to persons in the godhead by using two nouns when introducing God's message: ludex atque arbiter orbis... adloquitur Loth (The world's judge and arbiter addresses Lot, 2.338-42) If the decision to use two nouns here is a poetic response to the tradition of interpreting the two visitors to Lot as persons in the Godhead, it is a masterful touch. Of course it remains uncertain whether this was his intention, especially given his omission of the visit of the three to Abraham. But that Avitus was capable of such subtle allusion to the doctrine of God is indicated, as will be discussed below, by several similar instances in the poem. Moreover, that he was aware of and in accord with the Augustinian exegesis of the Lot episode in question is demonstrated by the close verbal and thematic echoes of Book 16 of The City of God.[With Avitus 2.329-37 arguing that debauchery had become as law in Sodom, and 2.395-9 declaring the fact of Lot's wife's transformation into salt had the effect of furnishing a condiment wiíh which to savor the lesson her example provided, compare De civ. Dei 16.30.]In a similar way we find Avitus in his Contra Arrianos making use of an exegetical motif of Genesis in order to present to Gundobad the orthodox doctrine of the Spirit as coeternal and coequal with the Father and Son. The Burgundian king had forwarded a series of objections to this doctrine which were raised by Arian bishops. The immediate problem centered on the identity of the spirit of God which was received at baptism: Was this spirit creature or creator? If creature, how could it be one with God? If creator, how could it be separated from God? [Igitur discutientibus vobis, utrum spiritus sanctus, qui in sacro baptismate indivisae dominationis vindicat unitatem, creator an creatura credendus sit, cum, si creator est, a divinitate nequeat separari, si creatura, deo non possit uniri? (Contra Arrianos, p. 13)

Avitus, feeling somewhat at a loss how to proceed but intent on upholding the orthodox doctrine, tries to discredit the Arian bishops in the king's eyes by showing that their real intention is not to get at the truth of the Scriptures but rather to force them into the service of their heretical viewpoint. He therefore cites a related question of theirs, pointing out their attempt to influence the answer by manipulating the key passage of interpretation, Gen. 2:7. The Arian bishops, in an

55

attempt to shed light on the nature of the spirit of God as creature with which man is said to have been inspired, had apparently posed the related question whether the spirit in man always existed or was created. They interpreted the text of Gen. 2:7 to mean that Adam, already possessing life, received the Spirit of God at this time. Avitus responds that in Gen. 2:7, whose authentic text, he points out, is not as quoted by the Arian bishops, [Avitus informs Gundobad that the correct reading is Et inspiravit infaciem eius spiracu/um vitae. etfactus est homo in animam viventem. The Arians had cited Wis. 15:11: Et insufflavit deus spiritum in animam vitae.] the inspiration refers simply to the endowment of corporeal man with an incorporeal soul:

Deus autem non quasi animae iam viventi spiritum legitur insufflasse, quem adderet, sed materiae nondum viventi, sicut antiqui codices habent, spiramentum vitae, quo in animam viventem sublimaretur, infudit.

We do not read, however, that God breathed a spirit into Adam's soul, which he added as it were to it already living, but into his material part not yet alive, and so the ancient codices have "the breath of life he instilled," by which it was raised into a living soul. [Ed. Peiper, pp. 13-14. My emphasis.]

Avitus then cautions the king to beware of those bishops, who do not want the truth but want to manipulate the evidence to make it conform to their falsehood. Such men, he writes, should not have the responsibility and honor of teaching his majesty.

It is precisely this interpretation of Gen. 2:7 which Avitus gives in his poem, again avoiding a simplistic exegetical motif of some of his predecessors. He describes the newly-formed body of Adam as being complete in every detail: in appearance, even in color and warmth, it was man. But in spite of all this potential it remains outstretched on the earth, without a breath, as mere organs awaiting a soul (anima) It is only after he receives this soul that he learns to breathe, rises and displays his reason. [De spir. hist., 1.114-30.] This too follows Augustine's teaching.

On the eve of the victory of the Catholic forces of Clovis' sons over Burgundy, therefore, the stakes were clearly still high: the king's respect and perhaps even his conversion. Trinitarian doctrine, for Avitus, as late as the first decade of the sixth century, was still a critical issue between him and the Arian community. He chose to write a biblical epic during this period of controversy. Although its central theme is related to the doctrine of salvation rather than of God, its material was nevertheless derived from scriptural texts which had long been employed by poets and prose writers alike to promote various doctrines about God. Thus, these doctrines appear throughout De spiritalis historiae gestis, both in Avitus' amplifications of the scriptural narrative and in his commentaries. [H. Goelzer, Le Latin de Saint Avit (Paris, 1909) p. 411 n. 2, points out that the word spiritalis at times designates, as here, "issued by the Holy Spirit."]

The doctrine of God, however, is presented not as an end in itself but as background to the themes of the reality of original sin, Christ's saving work, and the saving grace of the sacrament of baptism. In his epic Avitus did not have to elaborate on the doctrine of the Trinity he so patiently defends in prose. This is not due to a reluctance to call attention to an issue that was so sensitive between him and the Germanic Arians. Rather, it is because the epic was designed for a different audience. The doctrine he most eagerly presents here is the Augustinian doctrine of grace against a viewpoint which came to be known as Semipelagianism. [See my "Avitus of Vienne's Spiritual History and the Semipelagian Controversy: The Doctrinal Implications of Books 1-3," Vigiliae Christianae 38 (1984) 185-95.] This was an issue internal to the Catholic church, one that affected the Gallo-Roman monastic communities in the region, not their Germanic neighbors. A work in the formal style and with affinity to the Roman esthetic was not the medium for presenting doctrinal themes to a Germanic audience, but for diplomatically instructing a cultivated, generally unheretical Roman one. Given a learned audience, Avitus refrained from prosaically declaiming on points of doctrine with which his audience would have been in full agreement.

Yet although he refrained from overt commentary on the doctrine of God and avoids the primitive motifs, he skillfully alludes to it. In fact, the ability to convey the doctrine through allusion and symbol is one of the marks of his proficiency as a poet. The SpiritualHistoryis the most poetic, not necessarily the most detailed, handling of the doctrine of God of all the Genesis epics.

Avitus begins, as we have seen, with a preamble emphasizing several teachings related to the doctrine of original sin. [De spir. hist. 1.1-13. That the first parents would not have died if they had not sinned is a tradition endorsed by Augustine. see De civ. Dei 13.15; De corr. et gratia12.33.]Such references to Christ's saving work amid professions of the initial goodness of the Father's creation abound in the poem. Given his audience, the poet is not required to teach the divinity of

56

Christ or the equality of the Trinity, as these doctrines were readily acknowledged. Therefore he was able to treat these articles of faith more subtly. He begins his creation narrative proper, for example, in language with overtones concerning the participation of the Son in the creation. The almighty Father, he writes, created by means of the power of his Word, proportionately arranging (librantis pondere verbi 1.14) On the literal level this refers to the commands by which God in Genesis brings the universe into existence during the first six days.

The Christian exegetical tradition, however, suggested the Son's role as agent in the creation, chiefly in relation to the beginning of the Gospel of John, especially Jn. 1:10: mundus per ipsum factus est. [Cf. Vulg. Ps. 15:147. Augustine may serve as a representative of the later commentators who emphasize the creation of all things through the Word: Sic Deus edidit uerbum, hoc est, genuit Filium. Et tu quidem ex tempore gignis uerbum etiam in corde, Deus sine tempore genuit Filium, per quem creauit omnia tempora (Trac. 14. 7 in Eu. Ioan. CCL 36.146). Avitus is likewise fond of using uerbum to designate the second person of the Trinity. Cf. De spir. hist. 3.346, 4.205. Goelzer, however, accepts only a literal sense of uerbum in 1.14 and 1.27 (Le Latin de Saint Avit, p. 410 n. 3). Augustine, himself, however, was in favor of the figural reading: ur in eo quod scriptura narrat: 'dixit Deus: Fiat,' intellegamus Dei dictum incorporeum in natura uerbi eius coaeterni (De Genesi ad litteram 4.8, SC 48, p. 92) Avitus' phrase "by the fertility of the Word" (ubere verbi 1.27) which describes the means by which the vegetation was called forth before the appearance of animal life, provides echoes of this tradition as well.The poet's earlier phrase is particularly interesting in its description of God's Word as librantis, literally "balancing," bringing to mind the image of the spirit of God suspended over the waters (spiritus dei superferebatur, Gen. 1:2) [A. Schippers, De mundi initio (Diss. Amsterdam, 1945) p. 50, suggests that the word librantis as used here is "practically passive."] Thus the poet introduces the creator's work by using language appropriate to the trinitarian exegesis of the work of creation. Moreover, he alludes again to divine wisdom (sapientia, 1.75) n the creation of man. The force of these allusions helps explain the poet's acknowledgement that this was nevertheless the work of one creator (conditor unus, 1.96) [About this phrase Schippers remarks, "in this context the dogmatic 'unus' strikes us as odd, and suggests that it was meant to provide a rhetorical antithesis to the phrase ex parte et alia appearing in the line, describing the deliniation of Adam's anatomy" (ibid.p.71) It is better to see it as providing a theological counter balance to the trinitarian allusions.]

This assertion of the unity of the Creator is particularly appropriate given Avitus' presentation of the formation of Adam, which becomes suggestive of the trinitarian exegesis of the creation account without presenting overt commentary. At first, as in the previous description, the creator is designatedpater omnipotens (1.46, 80). As he surveys the work, he is still simply artifex and creator (1.49) pleased that what he established is beautiful. [1.44-8. Corresponds to Gen. 1:25 et vidit Deus quia bonum est.] But in connection with Adam's formation, the abstract noun sapientia is twice employed, once in the speech calling for the formation of man in God's image, promising his dominance over the material world, and once as an authorial reference to the contemplation of the human form:

Tum demum tali sapientia voce locuta est.En praeclara nitet mundano machina cultu.Et tamen impletum perfectis omnibus orbemquid iuvat ulterius nullo cultore teneri?Sed ne longa novam contristent otia terramnunc homo formetur, summi quem tangat imago numinis, et nostram celso donatus honoreinduat interius formonsa in mente figuram...Haec ait et fragilem dignatus tangere terramtemperat umentem consperso in pulvere limumorditurque novum dives sapientia corpus.

Then at last wisdom spoke these words: "Behold, the excellent product shines with a worldly refinement. And yet what further good is the world, completed with everything perfect, unless it is possessed by someone who will cultivate it? Therefore, in order that the new land be not saddened by a long period of idleness, let man be formed now; let the image of the supreme divinity touch him, and may he, endowed with a great honor, take on our likeness within in a splendid mind ..." He said these things and, having deigned to touch the brittle earth, with the dust besprinkled mixes moist mud, and abundant wisdom sets up the new body. (1.51-8, 73-5). As the work of Adam's formation begins in earnest, however, the poet presents an extended, Virgilian

57

simile discussing the labor of sculptors in wax and plaster. Now he who gives form to the various parts of the human anatomy is again calledpater omnipotens. Avitus' use of sapientia in this context, therefore, like his earlier use of sollertia in describing God as creator, is an instance of the substitution of abstract for concrete nouns. Sapientia, moreover, is used frequently in the Bible as a personification of God [Cf. for example, Job28:12-28; Prov.1:20; Prov.8:1; Prov.8:12; Prov.9:1; Rom. 11:13; 1Cor. 1:30] and is even the common appellation for divine wisdom (sophia) simply as an abstract noun, in pre-Christian writers, especially Cicero. But for a Christian writer, and equally for an audience with even a modest acquaintance with the exegetical tradition, it would be difficult not to hear a specific reference to Christ. The specific language is, in fact paralleled by Augustine's own commentary on the same verses in Genesis. Augustine attributes to sapientia God's call for man's creation:

Ipse sermo eius ... in illa eius summa sapientia, per quam facta sunt omnia.This speech of his was made ... in his supreme wisdom, through which all things were made. [Augustine, De genesi ad litteram 6.8.13 (CSEL 28) Cf. Op. imperf. I, Trac. in 14,7; 35,4.]

Augustine is aware, moreover, that although the term sapientia can correctly be used of all three persons of the Trinity, himself employing the phrase Deus-Sapientia as a general attribute of the godhead, [Solil. 1.1.3] its chief reference is to the Son:

Et sicut utrumque simul unum lumen et unus Deus, sic utrumque una sapientia. Sed filius factus est nobis sapientia a deo et iustitia et sanctificatio quia temporaliter nos ad illum convertimur, id est ex aliquo tempore, ut cum illo maneamus in aeternum. Et ipse ex quodam tempore "uerbum caro factum est et habitauit in nobis." Propterea igitur cum pronuntiatur in scripturis aut enarratur aliquid de sapientia, siue dicente ipsa siue cum de illa dicitur, filius nobis potissimum insinuatur.

And as both together are one light and one God, so both are one wisdom. But the Son has become "by God for us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification;" because we turn ourselves to him in time, that is, from some particular time, that we may remain with him forever. And he himself from a certain time was "the Word made flesh, and dwelt among us." On this account, then, when anything concerning wisdom is declared or narrated in the Scriptures, whether as itself speaking, or where anything is spoken of it, the son chiefly is intimated to us. [Augustine, De Trinitate 1.3.4-5, CCL 50.252, trans. A W. Haddan, Nicene and PostNicene Fathers, 1st ser., 3.108, modified.]

Moreover, in God's address to the first couple summarizing the work of the entire six days, the allusiveness to plurality is maintained by building upon the ambiguity of Gen. 1:26, which the poet accomplishes by offsetting nostra with a singular verb:O summum factoris opus, quos sola creavit

nostra manus, nasci cum cetera voce iuberem...O greatest product of the creator, whom our hand alone has created, while I commanded the rest to come into existence by my voice... (1.302-03) [This use of the customary anthropomorphic language recalls, in part, Ps. 8:6-7, minues eum paulo minus a Deo; gloria et decore coronabis eum: dabis ei potestatem super opera manuum tuarum.]

Here Avitus recalls the symbolism associated with his two previous references to God's creation of the universe through the power and fertility of his Word. Similarly, plurality is retained at the end of this address, when God calls upon the earth quem fecimus, "which we made" (1.315) as witness to the command regarding the forbidden fruit. Such echoes are suggestive of the multiplicity of persons in the Godhead.Having at this point reached the end of the creation narrative, the Spiritual History turns in the next book to its central doctrinal theme of the Fall and the beginnings of the divinely initiated path toward reconciliation culminating in Christ's saving work and the life of the Church. Yet even within his carefully constructed drama of sin and salvation encompassing the remaining four books, whose titles De originali peccato, De sententia Dei, De diluvio mundi, and De transitu maris rubri, accurately reflect the episodes selected for treatment, there are both allusions to and occasional direct commentary on the doctrine of God employing exegetical traditions. This theological dimension stands in addition to the numerous direct commentaries on Christ's saving work. This theme provides the main topic for exegetical commentary in the epic, for Avitus' christological commentary in the poem was intended to teach what Christ did rather than who Christ was. The former he makes the subject of frequent discussion; the latter he addresses in briefer references, often in connection with other more immediately relevant themes.

58

Thus in the Exodüs portion of the poem, in connection with the familiar typological parallel drawn from I Cor. 10:1-5 between the manna which nourished the Hebrews in the desert and the spiritual nourishment for Christians through the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the poet skillfully interweaves allusions both to the Incarnation and to the presence of God in the sacrament:

dum sacrum populo victum candentia mannaferrent et caeli frugem terrena viderent.per quam sublimis praediceret ante figuraedendum ex utero purum sine semine corpus,quo caperet pascenda salus de sede supernainlabente Deo sanctis altaribus escas.

During this time manna white as snow would provide holy sustenance to the nation, and what belongs to earth would see the fruit of heaven. By means of this food a heavenly symbol foretold of the body that would be born from a womb, pure, without seed, whereby salvation would be received as nourishment from the heavenly throne when God descends upon holy altars. (5.45~61)

The commentary then continues to interweave the motifs of Christ as the divine source of salvation and Christ as the reward of baptism by invoking the exegetical tradition connecting Isa. 48:21 and Jn. 7:37 with the narrative passage:

hoc signo summus percussa rupe sacerdosprotulit inriguos populis sitientibus haustus,Christum namque vides stabilem.

When the rock was struck the high priest [Moses] offered a refreshing drink for the thirsting nation, with this being a sign. For you see Christ was a stable rock. (5.462-4) The typological exegesis of the manna, already amply interpreted in connection with Christ by the New Testament writers, was a favorite motif of commentators before Avitus. Representative of the tradition is the Expositio in Apocalypsin:

Legimus in veteri Testamento, quia populum Judaeorum per deserta gradientem Dominus manna paverit, usque dum venirent ad terram repromissionis. Per manna igitur sapientia, quae Christus est, intelligi potest: Ipse est enim panis vivus, qui de caelo descendit (Jn. 6:41) Hoc pane aluntur omnes electi, in deserto atque in itinere huius saeculi positi.

We read in the Old Testament that the Lord fed the Jewish nation manna on their journey through the desert, all the way until their arrival in the Promised Land. And so by the manna wisdom, which is Christ, can be understood. For he is the bread of life, which came down from heaven. All the elect, while situated in the wilderness of this world and on a journey, are nourished by this bread. [PL 17.781]

Similarly, the tradition of presenting a typology of the divine drink from Christ "foretold of" in Exodus, was handled by Cyprian of Carthage in a manner much like that of Avitus. The bringing forth of water from a rock, according to him, foretells baptism, quod in Evangelio adimpletur, quando Christus, qui est petra, finditur ictu lanceae in passione (which is fulfilled in the Gospel when Christ, who is a rock, is pierced by the blow of a lance in his passion) Cyprian, Epistola 63.8, PL 4-379]. Again it is Augustine whose commentary provides the most poignant combination of images as a model for the poet:Si enim petra Christus propter firmitatem, cur non et manna Christus tamquam panis uiuus, qui de caelo descendit? quo uere qui uescuntur, spiritaliter uiuunt.For if the rock is Christ from its stability, is not the manna Christ, the living bread which came down from heaven, which gives spiritual life to those who truly feed on it?' [Augustine, Contra Faustum Manichaeum 12. 29, CSEL 25.357, trans. R . Stothert,Works, ed. M. Dods, Vol 5, p. 224-5.

Augustine's calling attention to the stability (firmitatem) of the rock recalls Avitus' use of stabilem. The poet is therefore not so much objecting to the legend that the rock from which Moses made water flow accompanied the Israelites through the desert as he is invoking the exegetical tradition which emphasizes the firm support which Christ and the Church provide mankind m its weakness.]

The examples adduced thus far show Avitus presenting the Christian doctrine of God through the use of exegetically relevant words and phrases in the narrative itself and through overt commentary interspersed among the narrative portions. In the Spiritual History both elements appear frequently and even guide the reader toward an appreciation of God as both creator and

59

redeemer whose identity is concealed in Genesis and Exodus and then revealed in the New Testament. But Avitus also gives commentary which further defines the nature of the Redeemer as God and man unified in the person of Christ. This 'Christology' is, of course, an equally important element of the orthodox doctrine of God. As in the preNicene centuries "the dogma of the Trinity was developed as the Church's response to a question about the identity of Jesus Christ. Was he, or was he not, equal in his divine existence with the Creator? .. . 'A few decades after Nicea, the theme of the formation of dogma shifted completely ... Now the theme is not the preexistent son of God, but the incarnate one.' [Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, Vol. 1, p. 226.]

As an orthodox bishop in competition with Arians at the Court of the Burgundian king, Avitus addressed the issue often and in considerable detail. Many passages distinguish between what is generally termed the two natures of Christ, namely his divinity and humanity, and his single person within the godhead. Avitus, in fact devoted a whole treatise to it in response to an inquiry from Gundobad. [Contra Eutychianiam haeresim (ca A.C. 512) A passage from Avitus' Contra Arrianos, composed earlier, is also noteworthy for the vocabulary it uses to make this distinction, since the same language appears, as will be shown, in a commentary within the poem. The union of divine and human natures in the one Christ is generally termed the Hypostatic Union from the Greek hypostasis, which is normally translated into Latin by the ambiguous term substantia, which can either mean a subsistent being (e.g., a person) or essence or nature. It is this second meaning that Avitus has in mind when he speaks of Christ as being of gemina substantia, that is, of a two-fold essence or nature, for he adds at once that despite the two-fold essences or natures, he is one person:In Christo deus et homo, non alter, sed ipse, non duo ex diversis, sed idem ex utroque mediator; gemina quidem substantia, sed una persona est. In Christ is God and Man, not one of two, but himself, not two separate, but the same mediator in each; indeed there is twin nature, but one person." [Avitus, Contra Arrianos 20, 21.]

In the treatise entitled Contra Eutychianam haeresim, Avitus compares the effort of discussing the mystery of the Hypostatic Union to navigating a narrow strait between equally dangerous obstacles, a favorite motif of Christian writers and reminiscent of the mythological Scylla and Charybdis. In this case, straying either to the left or the right could result in the error of denying one of the essential components of the mystery: either the real distinction of the natures of Christ, here termed duplicem, "double," or his substantial, that is, personal unity:Ac perinde latus utrumque formidans, sub temperamenti medio via tutior, in qua duplicem substantiam redemptoris discerni dicimus posse, non dividi. And, being fearful of either side equally, a safer path lies in the moderate middle, where we say that the double nature of the redeemer can be distinguished but not divided." [Avitus, Contra Eutychianam haeresim, ed. Peiper, p. 16.]

In these uses of gemina and duplex substantia it can be seen that Avitus is not presenting the concept of the underlying essence (ousia) f God, which he denotes in other contexts by substantia. It has been shown, for example, that even in an earlier section of the same writing, Avitus uses una substantia to define the essence of God in the standard trinitarian formula (trina in unitate persona et una est in trinitate substantia) hen he gave an exegesis of the three visitors to Abraham. The fact that substantia was made to bear the weight of these two different concepts is, of course, not Avitus' doing. Centuries earlier Tertullian, in his combat against Docetism, contributed the term in its christological sense, as Avitus uses it in the examples given here. The African churchman argued for "two substances" (substantiae ambae) not confused but conjoined in the person of Christ. [Tertullian, Adversus Praxean 27.11, 13, CCL 2.1199-1200. By contrast, for a discussion of the bedoubled substance of the godhead expressed as 'to live' and 'life,' which is an attempt at distinguishing the persons of the godhead, see Marius Victorinus, Contra Arium 4.3.]

Avitus' use of the singular substantia, qualified by the plural force of the adjective gemina, shows his efforts to express the mystery of the Incarnation. Moreover his addition, sed una persona est, keeps the phrase from being misconstrued as a denial of Christ's unity of person. The bishop's distinctive use of substantia in this passage was overlooked by H. Goelzer, who simply listed this usage together with Avitus' use of the term in trinitarian contexts." [Goelzer, Le Latin de St. Avit, p. 411: "le fond de l-être de ces personnes est signifié par le mot substantia, ex Abraham sacramentum indiuisae divinitatis intellegens uno nomine tres precatur. quia trina in unitate persona et una est in trinilate substantia,' 'Gemina quidem substantia, sed una persona est'."] Yet the same meaning appears not only in the Contra Arrianos and Contra Eutychianam haeresim but in the Spiritual History as well. There, at the conclusion of the presentation of the account of the

60

Great Flood as a figure of baptism, Avitus uses the rainbow which appeared after the flood rains had ceased as a symbol for the mystery of the Incarnation. Thus he presents in highly poetic language the basic doctrine of the union of the two substances in Christ:Nunc quicumque cupis veram servare salutem illud suspicies signum, quod signa figurant. Namque dator vitae praemisit talia Christus et geminata dedit substantia salvatorem. In terris sumptae nitida de virgine carni naturalis inest patrio de germine fulgor: et medius quidam mediator in aethere celso munere multimodo varius, sed fulgidus omni vitalem monstrat sacrati pigneris arcum.Now whoever of you want to keep true salvation, you will look on that sign tthe rainbow] which the signs figure. For Christ, giver of life, sent such signs in advance, and its doubled nature presented a savior. The Father's natural brilliance is present on earth in the flesh received from a pure virgin. And in between [heaven and earth] the mediator, as it were, varying in display [of color] but brilliant because of every [color], shows the lifegiving rainbow of the sacred promise. (4.639-47)

Just before presenting this christological typology, Avitus pointed to the rainbow's special property of deriving its manifold coloration from the elements. Additionally, the blending is of such a nature, he points out, that the eye at times seems able to distinguish one color from another, but at other times it sees them as mixed. Thus on the one hand, since it blends the light and dark shades which it derives from conjoined sources of the water in the rain clouds, the sun, the clear air and the earth, the rainbow stands for the harmony of the elements which God promised. On a grander scale, however, the rainbow stands for the harmony between heaven and earth, and with its own natural composition as proof, it confirms that the lands will not again experience destruction from the sky." [4.621-38. Cf. Gen. 9:12 ff.]

This leads Avitus to present the rainbow as a figure of the union of Christ's two natures. Just as the rainbow draws brilliance from the sky and darkness from the land (de caelo nitidum, de terra sumitur atrum 4.633) so does Christ derive his divine and human natures from heaven and earth. Moreover, just as we may be able on occasion to distinguish somewhat between these natures as we can the colors of the rainbow, the unity is not violated. The mediator denotes both the rainbow and the incarnate Christ.An important indicator of this exegetical path, which Avitus appears to have been the first to take in such detail, appears in Augustine's use of Gen. 9:12 to help explain a passage from a Psalm containing the phrase inter medios. Augustine says that the word medius emphasizes the closeness of a bond, as in the passage where "God speaks to Noah about the bow in the clouds for establishing a sign, he repeats this word medius very often." [Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 67.19, CCL 39.882.] Thus Augustine calls attention to the rainbow as an example of mediation between heaven and earth, God and man. [Augustine, ibid. (on Ps.68:14: Si dormiatis inter medios cleros [in the midstof the sheep folds]...) CCL 39.879-80). Augustine again makes a point of the reference to mediation in Gen. 9:12 in his Locutiones in Hept. 29 (CCL 33.384) This relation of the rainbow to Christ was also to be explored, after Avitus, by Gregory the Great, and with him the allegorical pattern assumes a form closer to that which it retains in medieval commentaries. In this new form two themes are emphasized. The first points to the intermingling of two colors, red and blue, as suggestive of water and fire, elements that serve as the means of divine vengeance, one in the past, the other to come. Gregory's exegesis, additionally, transforms the water and fire into symbols of divine grace: the water of baptism and the fiery ardor of the Holy Spirit. Gregory, discussing Ezechiel's vision of a rainbow [Ez. 1:28], recalls the rainbow of the Genesis account:... Sicut aspectus arcus cum fuerit in nube in die píuuiae, propheta conspexit. Quia enim per ignem, sicut dictum est, ardor sancti Spiritus designatur... In arcu quippe, sicut praefatus sum, aqua et ignis apparet. Et post Mediatoris aduentum, eo uirtus sancti Spiritus in humano genere claruit, quo electos Dei et aqua baptismatis lauit, et igne diuini amoris incendit. Quasi enim admixto colore aquae simul et ignis quidam arcus in nube ad propitiationem ponitur, cum Veritas dicit: "Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, non potest introire in regnum Dei."The prophet [Ezechiel] saw what looked to be like the bow when it appears in the cloud on a rainy day. For because in fire the ardor of the Holy Spirit is designated... In the bow, as I said earlier, water and fire appear. And after the coming of the Mediator the power of the Holy Spirit shone clearly in the human race, whereby the water of baptism washes and the fire of divine love inflames the chosen of God. It is as if in approval of the mixed colors of water and fire in the bow that the scriptures say: "Unless a man is reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." [Greg., Hom. in Ezech. Lib. 1. Hom. 8 (CCL 142.119)

61

The second theme relates the rainbow to Christ himself as Mediator. Gregory continues the allegory by pointing out the significance of the appearance of the rainbow on a rainy day:Qui arcus in nube est in die pluuiae, quia in dominica incarnatione, in effusione praedicationis ostenditur, ut ad ueniam corda credentium, Domino parcente, reuocentur. Nubem enim Redemptoris carnem non inconuenienter accipimus de qua per psalmistam dicitur: "Qui ponit nubem ascensum suum." Nubem quippe ascensum suum posuit, quia is qui diuinitate ubique est, carne ad celestia ascendit.This bow is in the clouds on a rainy day because it is shown in the Incarnation of the Lord, in the pouring out of preaching, so that the hearts of believers may be recalled to forgiveness with the Lord pardoning them. For we do not accept inconveniently the flesh of the Redeemer as a cloud. About this it is said through the Psalmist: "Who puts a cloud as his ascent." The Lord placed a cloud as his ascent, because he who is everywhere by divin~ty, ascended to the heavens in flesh.' [Ibid. This enhre exegesis of Gregory is repeated in Garnier de s. vict. Gregorianum, 8.18.590 (PL 193.325)

These themes, either separately or in combination, set the tone for subsequent Christian commentators.The other important aspect of the doctrine of God, which has been seen in other biblical epics, is the acknowledgment of God's ultimate transcendence. For despite all the positive statements made concerning the reality of the Trinity and the Incarnation, the poets, like the prose exegetes, express their awareness of limitation. Avitus is no exception. His peroration in Book 3 prays ultimately for the father to extend his right hand (dextera) In light of the poet s reference here to the story of the good thief who was crucified alongside Christ, dextera may allude to Christ, who is often spoken of as the hand of God (manus D~i) nd especially the right hand.] to us in his mercy (porrige sic nobis celsam, pater inclyte, dextram 3.420) but acknowledges that God is under no compulsion to do so.

Thus, at the most appropriate moment in the epic, in closing his treatment of the fall and before turning to the progress toward salvation, Avitus calls forth the doctrine of the divine transcendence.

At tu, praepollens hominum rerumque creator,quamquam cuncta velis fidae constare saluti, nulla tamen pateris nostrae dispendia mortisnec quoquam pereunte tuis contingere damnumdivitiis poterit. Nescis decrescere, nescisaugeri et pleno perstat tibi gloria regno.But you, supreme creator of men and the universe, although you will that everything

stand in a faithful bond of salvation, you are exposed to no losses connected with our death. Nor when anyone perishes can your divine majesty be affected. You cannot decrease nor be increased, and your glory remains with a full kingdom. (3.384-9)

CHAPTER THREECHRISTIAN COSMOLOGY IN THE BIBLICAL EPICS

In Christian prose exegesis, cosmological doctrines appear for the most part in the numerous commentaries on the work of the six days of creation. Christian writers, in their encounter with the cosmological theories taught in the pagan schools, looked to Genesis for answers to questions about the origin of the cosmos, the nature of matter, and the relation between the visible and supernatural worlds. Genesis was a valuable resource, for its suggestive mythology had long provided a framework for treatment of the subject. The history of the expansion of the hexaemeral text in the rabbinical tradition, for example, provided a background for the Christian cosmological doctrines, and it was the task for the Christian commentators both to appropriate that tradition and to continue the harmonization, where desirable and possible, of the scriptural creation account with secular philosophical theories.

This effort was itself a continuation of work already begun before the Christian era in the commentaries on Genesis of such writers as Philo of Alexandria (ca A.D. 50) Nor was it completed during the time of the composition of the biblical epics. Although Augustine, for example, wrote his influential commentaries on Genesis in the early fifth century, "the period from 430, the year of Augustine's death, until the Renaissance, produced a great number of Hexaemera," the most important of which is the "epoch-making" De divisione naturae of the ninth century

62

neo-Platonist, John Scotus Eriugena. [F.E. Robbins, The Hexaemeral Literature, p. 73.] Many of the principal prose exegetes of the Middle Ages, in fact, including Bede, Rabanus Maurus, Peter Lombard, Peter Comestor, Rupert of Deutz, Peter Abelard, Vincent of Beauvais, Hugh of St. Victor, Thierry of Chartres, and William of Conches wrote learned commentaries on the work of the six days.

S. Gamber, considering the reasons for the popularity of Genesis among the biblical poets, asked what literary resources the account of the earliest times according to Genesis offered the Christian poets. He answered by first of all acknowledgíng the power of tradition: Genesis had by that time received the attention of a great number of church fathers. Genesis was important to exegetes and apologists because Christian events were seen as "the epilogue of a great drama... whose prologue had been played out in the shadows of Eden." [Le Livre de la Genèse, p. 47.] Moreover, Christian exegetes beginning with Paul had already taken advantage of the figuralism in the Genesis story: Adam to Christ, Eve to Mary, the first creation to the new creation brought on by Christ's becoming human. Gamber thus considers the many prose Hexaemera composed from the first to the sixth centuries as ready-made sources of information and inspiration for the Genesis poets.

Gamber also asked whether the same responsibility of teaching the revealed truth about the nature of the cosmos in response to the pagan cosmologies, which the prose commentators assumed, was also assumed by the poets, much in the same way that Hesiod, Lucretius, and Ovid had addressed cosmological topics in verse. In fact, in Greco-Roman culture cosmological poetry was "better known and more popular than the dialogues of Plato or the treatises of Aristotle" (Gamber, p. 49). Although a poem might not have the amplitude of a prose treatise, it might be a more effective instructional tool if measured by its impact on the audience's memory and by its suggestiveness. Viewed in this light, cosmological exegesis and allusion in such poems are often significant, especially when they address religious doctrines related to the cosmos.

Among the composers of biblical epic incorporating the Genesis account, Victorius and Dracontius, who showed a great willingness to speculate on cosmological issues, have received some recent scholarly attention, but others such as Cyprianus and Avitus, who are more subtle in their presentation of the subject, await further study.

This chapter is concerned with the degree to which the biblical epics were designed to teach essential Christian doctrines about the cosmos, doctrines that were generally the result of reflection on the entire Christian experience and reimposed on the primitive Hebrew creation narrative. Such a doctrine as creatio ex nihilo, for example, may be inferred from or considered to be supported by the Genesis narrative but is extra-hexaemeral in that it is not stated in the biblical creation account. [3 It is stated in 2 Mac. 7:28. Among Christian exegetes, Clement, Theophilus, and Tertullian appear to have been the first to state and give reasons for the doctrine. See J. Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, vol. 1, p. 36. The verb creare, however, became the technical term only after the Vulgate supplanted earlier Latin versions. Christian writers were in many instances influenced by the Platonic tradition of the existence of unformed matter, from which the formed material objects were made. But where the pagan tradition suggested that this matter was eternal, Christian writers conceived of this matter as created. Thus in many instances the existence of formless matter is spoken of as if it were an intermediary step in God's creation ex nihilo. Justin Martyr, for example, writes "We have been instructed that God, in the beginning, created in his goodness everything out of shapeless matter for the sake of men" (Apology 1.10) cf. however, his Second Apology, ch. 6, where he speaks of two actions, creatio ex nihilo and the formation of the created matter.]

The corollary doctrine of the universality of the creative act, holding that everything in the universe was created, be it spiritual or material, is another that may be inferred from but not found explicitly stated in the biblical account. This doctrine receives support from Genesis only after an exegesis is performed, as, for example, when the "heaven and earth" of Gen. 1:1 are interpreted as denoting all that belongs to the spiritual and material realms. Similarly, "in the beginning" comes to mean "in the beginning of time," for time exists only relative to the creation, and the creation is not coeternal with God. Continuing this line of interpretation, God is thus considered by many exegetes not as one who merely gives order to chaos but as the creator of both matter and form. [Cf., for example, Athanasius, De Incarnatione, ch. 2 (PG 25.100) The process of the cosmological exegesis of Genesis is therefore like the process of developing legal fictions, which attempt to conceal the fact that new concepts are being added to a sacred legal code.

Certain teachings about the creation of the universe were even held in contradistinction to the literal force of the Genesis narrative. Following Ecclesiasticus 18:1, for example, it was commonly taught in patristic literature that the universe was created in an instant rather than in six

63

days. [Qui vivit in aeternum creavit omnia simul. See, for example, Philo, De opificio mundi 3.13, Basil, llexaemeron 1.6, Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram 4.33.51. Cf. Victorinus of Pettau, De opificio sex dierum 1.1.19.] It was then usual to address the days of creation as testimony to the gradual unfolding of the diverse parts of the universe. Such interpretations acquired the weight of tradition.

There are, besides, doctrines related to the creation which the Christian interpretation of the Genesis narrative put forth against certain ambiguities in Greco-Roman philosophical theories, such as the conception of intermediaries in the creative act. [Jewish exegetes came to provide a similar emphasis in suggesting that the angelic community assisted in the creation of the material world.] Against the implication of a hierarchy of divinities, the church fathers invoked the orthodox interpretation of the opening of the Gospel according to John and maintained that the creation had no other cause than God in Trinity. Neither demigods nor angels nor any other creature had made the world. [See e.g. Augustine, De Cen. ad litt. 1.9.15] Likewise, the goodness of the creation, which is repeatedly stated in Genesis, and the concept that God created freely, were maintained as points of doctrine, initially against dualist theories which posited the existence of conflicting good and evil principles in the universe. [See, for example, Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2.1 (PG 7.710) The extent to which the poets refer to these fundamental teachings can be used as an indicator of their doctrinal awareness and their interests beyond rhetorical paraphrase.

I. Proba's Cento

The Cento has already been discussed as a work showing deep interest in nature and natural phenomena. This interest has in fact been seen as one of the motivating forces behind Proba's decision to treat in poetry the biblical creation account over and above all other sections of the Old Testament. But although it has already been suggested that Proba felt obliged to modify the philosophical implications of her Virgilian raw material [Book 6 of the Aeneid, for example, which contains a creation account in its own right, was a main source for Proba], and although it is known that the work was read in Christian schools along with other verse commentaries on Genesis, [The Cento received negative criticism from Jerome (Ep. 130) and soon afterwards from Pope Gelasius, who in the late 5th century declared the work apocryphal. But it continued to be copied and used in schools, as its listing in monastic library catalogs and its presence in codices known to have been used in education attest.] it must now be considered whether her decision to versify the account of the Hexaemeron was motivated by a desire to communicate cosmological doctrines based on the scriptural account rather than on Virgil.

One factor which would suggest that Proba was not particularly interested in the cosmological implications of the biblical text is that the Cento differs on many points of detail from the biblical account. Thus, for example, the number of days differs, with Proba listing only four days prior to the formation of man. Moreover, the appearance of created species in Proba does not agree with the biblical sequence of events. Nor does Genesis contain a description of a river encircling Eden, which is featured in the Cento in imitation of the mythological Oceanus. But these discrepancies of narrative detail notwithstanding, Proba's creation account succeeds in several ways in presenting basic Christian cosmological doctrines. At the very outset of her narrative, for example, she remakes Virgil's lines to present the following testimony to the creation of heaven and earth by God:

Principio caelum ac terras camposque liquenteslucentemque globum lunae solisque laboresipse pater statuit, uos, o clarissima mundi lumina, íabentem caelo quae ducitis annum.

In the beginning heaven and the lands and the watery tracts and the shining orb of the moon and the sun's toils did the Father himself estabíish~ you most brilliant lights of the universe, who in the sky draw out the year as it slips along. (56-9)

Proba's adaptation of statuere in connection with the establishment of material objects does not reflect the Virgilian model. In writing ipse pater statuit Virgil was not referring to the making of material objects but only to a decree regarding the use of the already existing heavenly bodies as signs:

Ipse pater statuit, quid menstrua luna moneret,quo signo caderent Austri, quid saepe videntesagricolae propius stabulis armenta tenerent.

The Father himself decreed what warning the monthíy moon should give, what should signal the

64

fall of the wind, and what sight, oft seen, should prompt the farmer to keep his cattle nearer to their stalls. (Georg. 1.353-5) Trans. H. Fairclough, 1936.]

Moreover, Virgil's reference to the world's beginning (principium) a bona-fide cosmological passage, describes the presence of the worldsoul in the universe:Principio caelum ac terras camposque liquentis

lucentemque globum lunae Titaniaque astraspiritus intus alit.

In the beginning the heavens and the lands and the watery tracts and the shining orb of the moon and Titan's stars a spirit within sustains. (Aen. 6.724-6)

Proba, however, proclaims the divine source of creation in her use of this passage to present Gen. 1:1 by substituting ipse pater statuit for spiritus intus alit. Readers familiar with Vi~gil's lines can sense the shift in emphasis caused by their rearrangement. For this added reason her lines acquire even greater force in presenting the doctrine of the creation of tlle universe by God himself.

The lines which immediately follow in Proba also skilfully remake Virgil's lines, this time to suggest the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. Proba's negative description of the primordial darkness before the act of creation is in fact closer to this concept than even Gen. 1:2 itself:

Nam neque erant astrorum ignes nec lucidus aethersed nox atra polum bigis subuecta tenebat,et chaos in praeceps tantum tendebat ad umbras,quantus ad aetherium caeli suspectus Olympum.

For there were neither the stars' flames nor the clear air, but a black night, borne upwards in her chariot, possessed the sky, and chaos stretched headlong into the darkness as far as one can see toward heaven's ether. (6~63)

The first two lines are taken from passages in the Aeneid describing nights in Sicily when mist prevented starlight from being seen. [Aen. 3.585, 5.721] Once again, however, the original context has been abandoned and the sense radically transformed. Placed as they are in the Cento, as background to the first reference to the creation, the lines suggest not only darkness but cosmic void. The second pair of lines adopted by Proba, with the exception of the words et chaos, are taken. somewhat more appropriately, from Aeneas' depiction of the underworld. [Aen. 6.578-9.] But even here an alteration proves to be thematically relevant, for Proba has removed bis from the original Virgilian lines, which made the distance between earth and lower Tartarus twice that between earth and Olympus. Ironically, her version, without the numerical ratio, better communicates a sense of infinite nothingness rather than a terrifying but finite chasm.

Proba's re-weaving of Virgil's lines is also in harmony with the exegetical tradition of understanding God's creative act as the instantaneous production of the elements followed by a gradual appearance of individual species in a process of unfolding. Her fïrst reference to the creation, as cited above, includes epithets representing each of the four elements (caelum, air; terras, earth; campos liquentes, water; solis labores, fire). At this point in the narrative the creation is ascribed directly to God, but such appellations occur only in this section describing the setting of the elements in motion. Following this account, the passage describing the appearance of plant and animal life during the ensuing four days makes no mention of the creator. Instead, the species come into being almost as if in fulfillment of natural processes:

tempore iam ex illo fecundis imbribus aethermagnus alit magno conmixtus corpore fetus.et iam prima nouo spargebat lumine terrasducebatque diem stellis Aurora fugatis.tum durare solum et discludere Nerea pontoincipit et rerum paulatim sumere formas,et uariae pelagi facies inmania ceteaequora uerrebant caudis aestumque secabant.nec non et uasti circum gens umida pontiiam sole infuso, iam rebus luce retectisexultans rorem late dispergit amarum.postera iamque dies primo surgebat eoo.fundit humus flores et frondes explicat omnessanguineisque inculta rubent auiaria bacis,

65

non rastris, hominum non ulli obnoxia curae.tertia lux gelidam caelo dimouerat umbram.auia tum resonant auibus uirgulta canoriset liquidas corui presso dant gutture uocesnec gemere aeria cessauit turtur ab ulmo.quarto terra die uariarum monstra ferarumomnigenumque pecus nullo custode per herbameducit siluis subito mirabile uisu.tum demum mouet arma leo, tum pessima tigrissquamosusque draco et fulua ceruice leanasaeuire ac formae magnorum ululare luporum.cetera pascuntur uirides armenta per herbas,nec gregibus liquidi fontes nec gramina desunt.

Now from that time the great upper air, intermingled with the great matter, nourishes the offspring with fertile showers. And the first dawn was sprinkling the lands with new light and, with the stars routed, was bringing in the day. Then the soil begins to grow hard and confine Nereus to the sea and gradually assume the forms of things. Then the diverse shapes in the sea: great whales swept the surface with their tails and cut through the surge. Likewise the watery breed of the vast sea scattered the salty spray far and wide, rejoicing at the sun pouring in and at the appearance of things. And now the following day was rising with the earliest morning star: the earth pours forth ílowers and unfolds every leaf, and the wild haunts of birds, places that owe nothing to the plows of men or any cultivation, blush with berries the color of blood. The third day had dispelled the chill darkness from the sky. Then the wild greenery resounds with singing birds, and ravens produce clear voices from narrowed throat, nor does the turtledove cease to coo from elm on high. On the fourth day the land brings forth in matter onto the grassland the marvels of various wild beasts and every kind of herd, with no guardian - a wonder to behold. Then finally the lion prepares for battle, then rage and howl the dread tiger, the scaly serpent and the lioness with tawny neck, the forms of great wolves. Other herds feed through the green pastures, nor was clear water and fodder lacking to the flocks. (80-106) It is only after Proba's complete account of the appearance of the various species that reference is again made to God as the source of all created forms. At the start of the day that will witness the creation of Adam and Eve Proba comments in retrospect on the previous work, citing it, through another skilful adaptation of a pair of Virgilian phrases, as uirtutis opus diuinae mentis et haustus (a work of the power of the divine mind and spirit, 108) The section treating the creation of the universe, leading up to the appearance of man, is then summarized with a testimony to the creator's satisfaction with his work:

expleri mentem nequit ardescitque tuendo It is impossible for his mind to be filled up, and he is inílamed as he looks at it (110) In its new context, no better line could have been found to emphasize the goodness of the creation, as evidenced by the creator's joy in beholding it. By contrast, this same line in the Aeneid describes the result of Cupid's instilling in Dido so strong, but so destructive, a love for Aeneas.

II. Cyprianus' Heptateuch

With the Heptateuch of Cyprianus we leave the cento form and consider a work which has as the basis of its vocabulary and narrative structure the text of Scripture itself in an Old Latin version. As has been seen in connection with the topic of the doctrine of God, this work contains the fewest direct comments of all the biblical epics. Much of the poem follows closely the text of the Vetus latina, and the chief form of paraphrase seems to be abbreviation. There is not even a preface; nothing, for example, like Proba's appeal for inspiration to disclose the secrets of the universe. Instead, the poem simply begins with the creation account. The absence of prefatory material of any kind has contributed to the uncertainty surrounding the original aim of the work. Most readers therefore have stressed the poem's capacity to serve simply as a faithful compendium of Old Testament narrative'4 or as a rhetorical paraphrase for the entertainment of author and cultivated readers.[M. Manitius, Geschichte der chrisflich-lateinischen Poesie bis zur Miue des 8. Jahrhunderts (stuttgart, 1891) 2. L 168. Manitius even declared that “not once did the account of the creation entice the poet to embellish or expand upon his source ... the narrative flows on quite monotonously and often lacks even the liveliness of the biblical account (ibid.) O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur (repr. Darmstadt, 1962) voL 3 p. 433, suggests that the Heptateuchos was a schooltext intended exclusively as a model for paraphrase. Recently, K.

66

Smoiak, "Lateinische Umdichtungen des hiblichen Schöpfungsberichtes, ~'Studia Patristica l2(1975) . 1,351, n.3,agreeswith this assessment. Erom the standpoint of rhetoric as well the poem has been singled out for conservatism, as a ~rather close paraphrase in hexameters,... [whose] nearest approach to rhetoric is the oxymoron in the line 'quodpropter gelida Cain incanduit ira' (“because of that, Cain was incensed with coid anger”. N Kirkconnell, The Celestial Cycle, p. 507) E.J.E. Raby pronounced on its conservatism for other reasons, claiming that the poet had no other concern than to piant footsteps as ciosely as possible in the tracks of Virgil, or in those of Statius" (A History of Christian Latin Poetry, 2nd ed., p. 10.) Most recently in a study of the birth of Christian poetry, J. Fontaine still describes the style of Cyprianus as "graceful and clear, but keeping within the narrow limits of a strict paraphrase." He suggests that the poet "would have been capable of Iyricism if he had not held ascetically to the rules of a paraphrase even more bare than the prototype left by Juvencus." It is "a reactionary poem, characterized by the absence of any freedom of transcription," (Naissance de la poésie dans roccident chrétien [Paris, 1981], p. 247) So committed is Fontaine to this notion that he is led to ask whether the anonymous poet was actually "a western Jew, concerned with not allowing Christians a monopoly on biblical epic expression." - See Roberts, Riblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase, p. 96, n. 137. As has been mentioned, however, Roberts acknowledged some interpretive intaest on the poet's part, at least to the degree of inserting occasional moral reílections.]And yet there are those who have focused on innovations of detail in presenting the biblical account, innovations that often appear to be thematically motivated.[S. Gamber defends the Heptateuch as a poem whose author had exegetical interests in addition to those of a literary nature: "L'auteur de l'Heptateuch ... semble ne s'être attaché à reproduire en vers les livres de l'Ancien Testamentque pour rendre cene lecture plus agréable et populariser davantage les événements qu'ils racontent et les vérités religieuses qui y sont contenues-- (Le Livre de la Genèse, p. 5) Later in the same work, however, Gamber gives a more cautious opinion of the work, claiming that the poet reflects the frigidity of one deeply concerned with fidelity to the original (p 55) By contrast, J.M. Evans argues that the poet achieved a conscious theological positioning with regard to the account of the Fall of Adam and Eve through an entire series of modifications of and commentaries on the scriptural account: "Cyprian's Heptateuchos has received rather less than its due in critical studies of the poetry of\this period. It is generally regarded as a dull and unimaginative paraphrase of negligible literary merit. On the contrary, unless my reading of the poem is wholly misconceived, Cyprian has introduced several modifications into the Genesis narrative... To judge from the evidence of the poem as a whole, Cyprian seems to have been a man especially sensitive to the benevolence of God... The sum total of these far-reaching modifications of the biblical story is a thoroughly minimal treatment of the Fall, dominated by an acute sense not of Man's sinfulness but of God's mercy" (Paradise Lost and the Genesis Tradition [Oxford, 1968], pp. 139-41)

Many of the significant departures from the literal contents of the biblical text seem to be the result of interpreting the original text in light of doctrinal themes. In the lines treating the Hexaemeron, the most noticeable variation takes the form of deletions of clauses often repeated in the scriptural account. As a result, the creation of the universe up to the formation of the first man and woman is made to occupy only twenty-five lines. So concise a treatment may be due to the enormous scope of the project. But although the Heptateuch poet may have felt the need to be concise from the outset, the manner in which he chose to abbreviate the narrative ought to depend on his opinion of desirable and essential elements in the account of the origin of the cosmos, for we can assume that he would not sacrifice essential elements in the interest of brevity.

At the start he retains, for example, God's direct agency in the first act, the placement of a formless heaven and earth:

principio Dominus caelum, terramque locauitnamque erat informis fluctuque abscondita tellus.

In the beginning the Lord gave a place to heaven and earth, for the land was formless and hidden by the water. (1-2)

The poet's use of locauit may simply be due to metrical constraints. Locauit fits in the meter of a line which otherwise differs little from the VL Gen. 1:1, wherefecif, the verb commonly found in versions of the VL, does not.With reference to God's work, creauit is used in the Vulgate, Gen. 1:1, in the VL in Prov. 8:22, but Cyprianus uses this verb only in connection with human birth (Ex. 215) Subsequently, Cyprianus' interpretation of the waters above the firmament as clouds, (dominus...

67

condidit albentem nebulis nascen tibus axem, "the Lord made the sky white with burgeoning clouds,"7-8) suggests an effort to explain what the scriptural passage means when it speaks of the separation of waters above and below the firmament and the disclosing of dry land on earth. This is a concern which Augustine voices:An forte rarior aqua velut nebula terras tegebat, quae congregatione spissata est, ut ex multis eas partibus, in quibus arida posset apparere, nudaret?Was water in a rarified form perhaps covering the lands as a cloud, which was brought together and became thick, so that it laid them bare in those parts where dry land could appear?' [Aug., De Gen. ad litt. 1.12. Cf. ibid., 2.4]

For Augustine the existence of these clouds, although not named as such in Genesis, would mean that matter already possessed specific form, for non est autem informis omni modo materies, ubi etiam nebulosa species adparuerit (matter is not entirely unformed, where it appears even in the form of a cloud) [Ibid., 1.12.27] Augustine therefore rejects this speculation. Cyprianus by contrast, apparently untroubled by the dilemma, places these cloud-waters at the head of his enumeration of the physical species which appear spontaneously, just as in Proba's narrative.

Exegetes influenced by pre-Christian Hellenic cosmological theories often took the corresponding verses in Genesis as a reference to primordial matter which God brought into existence, out of which the elements were made and all creation composed. This concept often led to the corollary that the universe was the product of the instantaneous expression of God's will. Thus the biblical author, some argued, introduced the number of days in order to discuss the creation in separate parts, since it was impossible for him to treat everything at once.

Cyprianus' manner of handling these and the subsequent verses may have been influenced by such exegetical traditions, for he deletes the name of God, so often repeated in the biblical account, from the subsequent details of the appearance of natural objects. On the second day, for example, the poet observes that accipit immensus errantia litora pontus,/ multiplices rapiens ualidis cum tractibus amnes (The vast sea receives its meandering shoreline, drawing in multibranched rivers with their strong courses, 9-10) In the biblical account of the second day, on which the firmament is made and the waters divided therefrom, God not only gives a command but performs the creative action and then himself names the product. [Gen. 1:6-8]

The poet's description of the appearance of plant-life on the third day also omits reference to the creator. God's naming of the dry land "earth" becomes an impersonal statement: Tertia luxfaciem terrarum fulua retexit./ arida mox posito narratur nomine terra (The third tawny light revealed the surface of the lands. The dry land, its name immediately assigned, is called "earth," 11-12) Then vegetation appears in the presence of fertile winds, but without a divine command:

florea uentosis consurgunt germina campispomiferique simul procuruant brachia rami.

Flowering shoots spring up on the wind-swept fields and at the same moment branches laden with fruit weigh down the boughs. (13-14) cf. Gen. 1:11, Dixit Deus "germinet ferra herbam...".]

The fourth day witnesses the appearance of sun, moon, and stars:quarta die generat solis cum lampade lunam,et stellas tremulo radiantes lumine figit.haec elementa dedit subiecto insignia mundo,tempora quae doceant uarios mutanda per ortus.

On the fourth day (God) produces the moon along with the sun's lamp, and fixes the stars, brilliant with shimmering light. (He) ave these elements to the world below as signs to teach the seasons which would change through their various risings. (15-18). An emendation of die in 1. 15 to dies has been suggested, making quar~a dies the subject of the sentence describing the activity of the fourth day, just as tertia /ux is the subject of the third day's events. It aiso repairs the metrical irregularity of having quarta with a short finai a stand as ablative. Days five, six, and seven, however, aiso begin with what seems to have been intended as ablative of time constructions, and in these the final a's are aiso all short. To emend die to dies therefore would require other more drastic emendations. sut even if ail of these emendations are rejected, none of these days expressiy mentions the creator as a separate subject of the sentence.]

On the fifth day fish and birds are in their respective places. The implication is that they are created externally and put into their separate realms: quinta die accipiunt liquentia flumina pisces/ et uolucres uarias suspendunt aere pinnas (On the fifth day the watery rivers receive fish, and

68

birds suspend their many-colored wings in the air, 19-20) Only with the sixth-day creation does the poet again explicitly mention God, using the wordspater (21) n his narration of the land animals and divina potentia (25) n his depiction of the creation of man, although the scriptural narrative has by this time named the creator repeatedly. The creation of man and the drama played out in paradise is a topic of special significance to the poet, and it is appropriate that he opens this section with an overt reference to the creator. Thus the rhetorical abbreviation has the force not only of facilitating natural description in the hexaemeral passages but of directing the reader's attention toward the special nature of the creation of Adam.

III. Ps. Hilarius' Metrum in Genesim

This short poem treating both the creation and the fall of Man, as well as the Flood as a symbol of the beginning of the process of salvation, has neither the Cento's restrictions of language nor the Heptateuch's restrictions of content. The author of this work comments directly on the significance of his material and includes only that part of the narrative which serves to illustrate his theme.Unlike Cyprianus' Heptateuch, the Hexaemeron occupies a substantial part of this poem's 204 lines. Regarding the creation of the universe (cuncta) the poet emphasizes its divine source, speaking of it at first as a whole, perhaps in an effort to echo the exegesis of 'heaven and earth' in Gen. 1:1 and to recall the concept of the creation as an instantaneous act from which subsequently arose all the individual species:

Dignum opus et iustum semper tibi dicere grates,omnipotens mundi genitor, quo principe cunctanatalem sumpsere diem atque exorta repentepost tenebras stupidi spectarunt lumina caeli:gens hominum pecudesque ferae milleque uolucreset quae per liquidos discurrunt agmina campos,omnia per temet, ex te, qui maxima condis.

It is right and just always to give thanks to you, almighty creator of the world. From you as source all things acquired their first day and, having suddenly come into existence after the darkness, looked upon the lights of the astounded heavens: the race of men and the wild herds and the myriad birds and those swarms that rush about in the sea, all are through you alone and from you, who create very great things. (7-13) After the invocation the poet again reflects on the creation, in particular on a tradition supported by Justin Martyr, suggested by the poet Cyprianus, and acknowledged but eventually rejected by Augustine, that of considering matter as preliminary to the appearance of formed species:

omnia cum tegeret nigrum chaos altaque molesdesuper urgeret informis corpora mundi et caliganti premeret serotina morte,nec species nec forma foret, deus intus agebascorporibus tectis mixtus, secreta potestas,iam tum disponens nascentia moenia mundi et uarias rerum facies animasque futuras.utque caput uicta prompsisti caligine noctis,sublimem attollens uultum sensere tenebrae.mox dominus rerum somnos discussit inertes,pigraque materies trepidauit nomine pulsacommotaque simul maturo conscia partu.scinditur ingentis cumuli per plurima corpusmembra, locosque simul metantur semina iussu,et confusa simul descendunt uiscera molis.

When black chaos was hiding everything, and a profound mass from above weighed upon the matter of the formless world and covered the tardy stuff with misty death, and when neither shape nor form existed; you, God, intermingled as a secret power, moved within this concealed mass. Already then you were arranging the emerging enclosure of the universe and the manifold forms of matter and the lives to come. And as you, raising your head, put it forth, with night's obscurity overcome, the darkness sensed your exalted countenance. Immediately the Lord of the universe dispelled the lifeless inertia. The sluggish matter, struck by a name, shook, and thoroughly moved by its timely birth, was conscious. The huge mass is divided into many parts; the elements, on command, immediately mark out their regions and immediately the muddled core of the mass sinks downwards. (23-37) This detailed description of the creator's informing of matter

69

and his creation of the four elements is another conscious, interpretive expansion of the biblical narrative. In this case, the material with which the poet expands the biblical text owes much to the patristic practice of appropriating Hellenic cosmology. The result preserves the integrity of the doctrine attributing all creation to God while harmonizing the concise and often cryptic biblical narrative with accepted physical theories. Ambrose in particular provides a close parallel to the cosmological positioning of this poet: he had no difficulty in acknowledging the reality of hyle (formless matter) so long as its creation by God was also acknowledged. Nor did he see the need to reject the idea, as Augustine did, that matter can exist without form:Et fortasse dicant: Cur enim Deus - sicut dixit et facta sunt non simul ornatus congruos surgentibus donavit elementis, quasi non potuit, coelum insignitum stellis subito ut creatum est, refulgere, et floribus ac fructibus terra vestiri? Potuit utique, sed... primo facta, postea composita declarantur.And perhaps they may say, "Why did not God, just as, 'He spoke and they were made,' grant to the elements at the same time as they arose their appropriate adornments, as if, at the moment of creation, the heavens were unable immediately to gleam with studded stars and the earth to be clothed with flowers and fruit?" That could very well have happened. Yet things are said to be first created and afterwards put in order. [Ambrose, Hex. 1.7.27, trans. J. Savage (Fathers of the Church 42.28-9) emended.]

For Hilarius, the elements, once separated, take up their natural location relative to one another: the heavy earth falls away from the heavens, and air fills the space between. All this, moreover, stands as a prelude to the first individual creative event in Genesis, the production of light and its separation from darkness. The poet emphasizes the providential nature of this act in a forward-looking reference to human life. Light is the medium whereby the best of the creator's gifts are conferred. For the poet, the day is ultimately a symbol of life itself, as night is the image of death: quo mage forma dies uitae, nox mortis imago est (64, also 25) The poet then treats of the events of the third and fourth days in reverse order, apparently to provide a more logical sequence to the preceding praise of light. His narration of the appearance of the heavenly bodies improves the esthetic effect of the biblical narrative by allowing readers first to envision individual stars and constellations in the heavens, then to reflect on the preeminence of the sun, which the poet calls astrorum ductor (79) emphasizing at the same time, however, that its exalted position is the result of the creator's action:

Sed soli lux maior inest, quem munere largo excultum, genitor, pleno dignaris honore.

The greater light is the sun's, which you, O Creator, deem worthy of full honor, having perfected it with ample gift. (75-6)

The passage provides a good example of an emphasis often made in patristic literature: bonus quidem sol, sed ministerio, non imperio. [Ambrose, Hex. 4.1.4. Basil (Hom. 4 in Hex. 3) ent so far as to tesch that not the sun but the word of God engenders crops.]

The remainder of this passage is occupied with other cosmological events: the calling forth of the moon and the stars, with a mention of their service to mankind as predictable signs for determining seasons. Then Hilarius discusses the production of the earth as the future home for man and beast and a resting place for birds. His ekphrasis of the separation of the dry lands from the sea is developed in imitation of passages from Lucretius and Ovid. [Lucretius, 5.492-4:

Sidebant campi, cresceban~ mon~ibus altis/ ascensus; neque enim poterant subsidere saxa/ nec pariter tantundem omnes succumbere partis.

Ovid, Met. 1.43-4: Iussit et extendi campos, subsidere valles/... Iapidosos surgere montes.]

Then vegetation covers the land, and, last before the creation of man "the differentiated shapes of various animals come into being: quadrupeds, beasts that crawl, and birds."

IV. Victorius' Alethia

A large portion of Victorius' verse commentary is devoted to the presentation of cosmological doctrines, showing the influence of Ambrose in particular. The creation is in fact a theme which the poet addresses immediately and forcefully even in his preface. Among his litany of praises of the creator, for example, Victorius makes an unequivocal profession of his faith in the instantaneous generation of all matter from nothing:

70

A te principium traxit quodcumque repenteex nihilo emicuit tantoque auctore repletumuel vim mentis habet uel formam in mente recepit.Whatever suddenly shone forth from nothingness took its origin from you, and filled with so great a creator, either has the vigor of mind or received its form in mind. (Prec. 22-4)

P.F. Hovingh, who has studied these early verses of the Alethia in detail, points out several connections with the patristic exegetical tradition. The instantaneous generation of the universe, like creatio ex nihilo, is a doctrine frequently repeated in the Alethia, as it is in Ambrose. [Cf Prec. 53 subitis, 1.91 raptim, 140 nec mora. The idea is expresscd in Ambrose in Hex. 3.8.34 continuo; 3.17.10 statim. Sec P.F. Hovingh, Claudius Marius Victorius Alnhia: La Prière et les vers 1-170 du livrel avec introduction, traduction et commentaire (Groningen, 1955) hereafter referred to as Commentaire) p. 79.] The idea of the created universe suffused with God echoes Jer. 23:24 (caelum ac terram ego compleo) This phrase also became a commonplace in patristic literature. [Commentaire, p. 79.] The poet continues in the same sentence his reference to the well-known theory of the existence of Forms or Ideas, which are the expressions of the mind of the creator and the eternal principles whereby matter receives its various forms and properties. This theory, found amply expressed among Platonists and neo-Pythagoreans, was appropriated by leading Christian commentators on the creation. [Commentaire, p. 79, points to Augustine, De div. quaes. 83.46.2.] Additionally, Victorius refers both to that part of creation which has the divine energy within it, namely souls, and that part which derives only its form from the divine mind. This is a distinction highlighted by Ambrose...

As a reflection of its divine source, therefore, the universe is characteri7ed by order, harmony, and balance, but chiefly by goodness. Even contrasting elements, hot and cold, light and heavy, can be seen in their very competition to contribute to the general concord. Such an emphasis, articulated early in the Timaeus, also found a prominent place in the Christian hexaemeral tradition. This leads Victorius to present it here:

... liquida ratione probasti quod tibi sola, deus, gigni qua cuncta iuberes,causa fuit bonitas...

You have demonstrated with pure reason that goodness alone, O God, was the cause whereby you ordered the universe to come into existence... (Prec. 49-51)

This doctrine is stressed by all orthodox commentators on the creation, particularly against dualist theories supporting the existence of both good and evil principles in the formation of the universe, wherein the good was considered responsible for the creation of the spiritual realm, with matter being considered the product of the evil principle...

At this point Victorius refers to speculative doctrines regarding angels: their creation before the world's, and their bliss in contemplation of the creator's plan. Both were popular traditions among the most influential patristic authors. [Gamber, Le livre de la Genèse, p. 81 and Robbins, The Hexaemeral Literature, p. 45, n. 2, cite Tatian, Origen, Basil, Grego y of Nazianzus, Hilary of Poitiers, and Ambrose. Commentaire, p. 88, adds a citation from Augustine.]

... cum iussis uiuere primumspiritibus mundoque frui, quem mente gerebas,esse datum rebus subitis et cedere latein caelum terrasque sjmul sedemque coruscamangeíico praebere gregi.

... with spirits commanded to live first and enjoy the universe which you were producing with your mind, being was given to matter, having suddeníy come into existence at the same time. It was its task to go far and wide into the heavens and the earth and to provide a shining home for the angelic host. (Prec. 51-5) The poet shows that angels, like men, have free will, even though some of them fell by turning away from God.

quis libera corda arbitriumque sui largitus mente benigna,ut fieret uirtutis opus meritisque piorumhoc quoque conferres, praestando ut debitor esses.nec quod de primis a te regnare creatisunus dum lucis domino uitaeque suoqueinuidet auctori tituíumque hunc appetit, auctormaluit esse mali mortemque inducere terris

71

cum scelerum sociis celso deiectus Olympo,uirtuti quicquam sacrae praescribere fas estcui satis est fecisse bonum.

With good will you bestowed on them free minds and control of themselves, so that work of virtue might be done, and so that you would also confer this, by the merits of the just, that you, in providing, would be the debtor. And it is not right to object to divine power at all, for which it was enough to have done good, just because one of the first of those created by you to rule preferred to be the originator of evil and to bring death to the earth by envying the lord of light and life and his own creator and, seeking this title, was cast down from lofty Olympus along with his partners in sin. (55-65)

This expression of God's purpose in making his intelligent creatures free reflects a central theological topic connected with the creation. Olindo Ferrari, one of this century's early students of Victorius, pointed out an interesting parallel in Jerome. [O. Ferrari, Un poeta cristiano del quinto secolo. Claudio Maria Vittore (Pavia, 1912) p. 16.]

The early Christian exegete wrote:dedit liberum arbitrium, dedit mentis propriae uoluntatem, ut uiueret unusquisque non ex imperio dei, sed ex obsequio suo, id est non ex necessitate, sed ex uoluntate, ut uirtus haberet locum, ut a ceteris animantibus distaremus. He gave free will, he gave the volition of one's own mind so that everyone might live not by the command of God but by his own obedience, that is, not out of necessity but by volition, so that there might be a place for virtue, that we might distinguish ourselves from other living beings. [Jerome, Epist. 21.6 (CSEL 54.118) Commentaire, p. 89, repeats the citation found in Ferrari.]

Similarly, the attribution of the cause of the angels' fall to envy represents a well -known tradition stemming from Wis. 2:24. Although the fall of angels is a topic belonging to subsequent episodes in the biblical tradition, Victorius' reference to it here is important for our examination of cosmological doctrines since the poet uses the occasion to profess the doctrine that the creator cannot be held as the originator of evil, in spite of the presence of sin. Here is recalled Augustine's similar profession that nullo modo creatorem hinc esse culpandum (in no way from this ought the creator be considered blameworthy) [Augustine, De lib. arb. 3.20.58.]

In 11. 1-170 of Book I Victorius presents numerous cosmological doctrines using the biblical creation account itself as a framework. The beginning of this passage has already been mentioned in connection with the doctrine of God. In summary, Victorius' arguments concerning creation are: First, God existed as a Trinity before he made the universe in any of the temporal aspects, past, present or future. Second, God is responsible for the entire creation, the things themselves, their causes, and their future events (iam res et causas rerum casusque futuros, 1.10) Third, the godhead was complete even prior to the creation, the Trinity being eternally witnessed by each of its persons: God therefore was a kingdom to himself (1.14) Fourth, God created everything at once, but the individual species each received their own ortus(l .19-20) The fact of God's creation of the universe is then demonstrated by the following arguments: The order and complexity of the universe do not point to a random generation but to its creation according to a plan. The universe does not precede time, for time came into existence when things were formed. The universe is not eternal, for the matter of which it is made is perishable, and what will have an end also had a beginning.

These arguments show the influence of Christian syncretism involving the appropriation and harmonizing of those teachings of various philosophical schools of Antiquity which were considered compatible with statements made in the Bible. The birth of time as a by-product of the birth of matter, for example, is a proof echoing Plato (Timaeus 38b) hich accords well with the biblical doctrine of the totality of the creative act, before which nothing may be said to have existed. Yet any suggestion in the platonic speculation of the world's being without end (as in Timaeus 4 la-b) is rejected, as it was rejected by the Stoics. This type of syncretism had long been practised by Philo, Origen, and the Latin patristic authors.

Only after his extensive explication of cosmological doctrines does Victorius give a verse paraphrase of the work of the six days according to Genesis. But even in the simple paMphrase portion, the poet enhances his model in several key places. The work of the first day occupies lines 48-52:

Quis modus in toto, quae summa in munere, cuiusexcelsi conuexa poli terraeque iacentes

72

pars prima est operis? sed terras texerat aequoraeraque in medio sordenti nube madentemumbra poli densis urgebat caeca tenebris.

What is the limit in the cosmos, what are the most excellent things in the system, whose vault of lofty heaven and the lands Iying below constitute the first part of the work of creation? The sea had covered the lands and the sky's blind shadow was pressing down with dense darkness on the moist air in the midst of squalid cloud.

Victorius, in the manner of the patristic authors, reveals amid this darkness the vivifying presence of the Holy Spirit, an interpretation of the spiritus Dei of Gen. 1:2. The Holy Spirit's power to endow water with its life-giving force echoes the patristic tradition. The poet also attempts an explanation of the incomposita terra of Gen. 1:2:

et sacer extensis impendens spiritus undisaltrices animabat aquas ac semina rerumnondum compositis fundenda ad germina terrisinsinuanda dabat.

And the Holy Spirit, hovering over the expansive sea, was giving life to waters that would nourish. And he was providing the seeds of matter that were destined to be introduced into the not yet formed earth for the purpose of spreading seeds. (53-6) Then light appears as the result of divine action, darkness retreats, and night and day receive their names:

cum lux immissa superneemicuit cogente deo discretaque nigrumumbra peplum retrahens summo discessit Olympo et medias obiecit aquas fugiensque sequentismox pos<t> terga fuit. nomen sic meta dieiimposuit lucis spatiis mundoque refusamnoctem intercisae parilem fecere tenebrae.

At this time light, sent from above with God forming it, shone forth brilliantly, and the darkness, having been separated, drew back its black cloak and left high heaven. Placing the waters between itself and the light, it soon ends up behind its former pursuer [i.e. the light]. Thus the boundary placed the name of day upon the spaces of light, and darkness, interspersed, made an equal night restored to the world. (56-62)

In the versification of the work of the second day we encounter further speculation on the meaning of ambiguous passages in the biblical narrative, in this case the firmament's sepaMtion of waters (Gen. 1:6-7)In the exegetical tradition of Genesis, the nature and purpose of the waters above the firmament were much discussed. Among patristic authors those waters were generally explained as a buffer for the earth against the heat of the heavenly bodies. Victorius echoes this theory, but, like many Christian investigators of the mysteries of the cosmos, cautions against excessive curiosity. For him such explanations are examples of learned error (error peritus) In the presence of such mysteries, Victorius advises, it is better to have faith in God's inscrutable control of the laws of nature:

forsitan hic aliquis sic secum errore perito disserat: "aetheriis ne desint pabula flammiset nimius calor ima petens alimenta sequendo exurat mortale genus caelumque coruscumnon possint terrena pati, subiecta deorsum estmachina firma poli quae, dum nos protegit umbra,et uelatur aquis." talis sed quaerere causasmens fuge nostra procul; plus sit tibi credere semper posse deum quicquid fieri non posse putatur.

Here perhaps someone may thus explain to himself with clever error: "The firmament of the heavens was lowered, which, while it protects us with its shadow, is itself covered by water, so that the etherial ílames' in need of matter to consume, would not seek fuel below and burn up the mortal race with their tremendous heat, and lest things of the earth not tolerate heaven's gleam." But shun, O minds of ours, the investigation of such causes. Rather let it always be for you to believe that God can do whatever is considered impossible. (71-9) Victorius then expiains the elements' taking up position in the universe according to their weight: a space above the earth fills with air and the sea withdraws to reveal dry land on which vegetation

73

begins to grow. On the fourth day the heavenly bodies appear: the sun which surpasses all others, and the moon and stars which offset night's darkness. Bearing witness to their creator in their orderly procession around the earth, they produce the changing seasons. [At this point the poet asks whether the moon~s light is its own or a reflection of the sun's: proprio seu lumine fulsit/ seu ueniente globo radios percussa refudit (whether it glowed by means of its own light or, struck with light, it reflected the rays from the [sun's] sphere pursuing it, 1.100-01)

Victorius' fifth-day narrative attributes generating force to the water itself (liquor genitalis 1.123) which is responsible for the production not only of fish but of birds as well. The common origin of fish and birds from the waters is another theory that appears to be appropriated fronl the platonic tradition into Christian cosmological speculation. It is developed in connection with the fifth-day creation narrative, for example, in Philo, Basil, and Ambrose...

Finally, before the creation of man, for whom all the rest has been made (quem propter cuncta parauit [Deus] 1.142) the land animals come forth from the warm earth on the sixth day. The work of the sixth day, however, does not signal the end of Victorius' handling of the work of creation. The poet adds a brilliant passage of reflection on the question of the relationship between the biblical sequence and the reality of the divine creative act. He brings this topic to the forefront in the first part of an extended discussion of the work of the seventh day, contained in Alethia 1.171-204: [The following discussion of the cosmological portion of victorius~ seventhday commentary is based on observations contained in my "The Seventh Day of Creation in Alethia of Claudius Marius Victor,~ Vigiliae Christianae 42 (1988) 59-74. victorius continues his seventh-day commentary with anthropological observations to line 222. In several places I have changed Hovingh's punctuation [CCL 128], and in doing so have generally followed the advice of the editors of Vigiliae Christianae.Septima lux magnum uidit cessasse parentem,sed generum numeros tantum desisse creareet requiem tenuisse suam, meritoque sacrata est,diuersum quae uidit opus; nam hoc quoque plenum estuirtutis cessasse deum, posuisse labores:formam progenitis, qua praemia digna pararent.bis ternis satis est dominum spectasse diebus;septima lux docuit ueneranda exempla quietis,quam sperare iubet populos pro munere uitaesemper post operum tribuendam facta piorum.haec quoque lux illa est, dira qua Tartara Christussoluit et euicto reditum patefecit Auerno,dum requiescit humi patriam rediturus in aulam.sic cessare deus, sic otia sumere nouit,plus ut agat cessans: pariter sine fine quiescensac sine fine operans seriemque et tempora miscenscessando consummat opus, quodcumque crearat,ut faceret, primumque hominem iam corpore donat,qui postremus erat--nam causas condere rerumnon quod membra dare est; seu cum sic septima currat,ut maneat quoque sexta dies, quia sexta profecto hoc quod prima deo est praesto omnia semper habenti quae nobis fugiunt, post quaeuis tempora summusauctor adhuc hominem sexta sic luce figurat,siue, ut nos merito rebus praestare creatis,quos facit ipse manu, doceat, manifestius editnunc, quod factus homo est, solidoque hoc intimat orbi:"omnia, quaeque mouent anima, generata iubente,uos operante deo." tanto quis digna parenti laudis sacra ferat, qui mundum atque omnia raptimimperio explicuit, dumque imperat esse, peregit,nos facit esse mora, nos circum impendere sacri dignatur curam studii suadetque putari paene laboris opus?“The seventh day was witness to the fact that the great father had ceased - but only in the sense that he ceased adding to the numbers of kinds of creatures - and had taken his rest. And that day which witnessed a different kind of work was deservedly blessed. For even God's ceasing and

74

putting aside his labors is a thing full of power--an example for his children whereby they might acquire fitting rewards. It is enough [for us] to have seen the Lord [working] six days. The seventh day gave a holy example of rest and bids people to expect this rest as a reward for life, to be bestowed forever after pious works have been performed. That day is also the one on which Christ, while he rested in the ground before his return to his father's abode, opened dread Tartarus and showed the way back by gaining the victory over Avernus. In such a way is God able to cease, in such a way is he able to take rest, that he does more while ceasing.Equally resting and working without end, and merging times and sequence, he completes the work by ceasing, in order to make those things which he had already created, and now he endows the first man, who was last in the order of creation, with a body--for to establish the causes of all things is not the same as to provide with limbs. Whether this be the case: that the seventh day passes in such a way that the sixth day also remains (for surely the sixth day is the same as the first to God, to whom all that escapes us is always present) thus the supreme creator is, after any amount of time, still shaping man on the sixth day. Or, in order to teach us that we whom he himself made with his hand are rightly above all other creatures, he declares more openly now that man has been made and he makes this known to the whole world: "All things that move with life were generated by the command of God, but your life is the result of God's direct labor."

Who can offer praise worthy of so great a father, who by his command instantly revealed the universe and everything that is in it and brought it to completion even as he was ordering it into existence, [but] who brings us into existence with delay (mora, i.e. 'with a passage of time') nd deigns to expend the care of holy effort on us and makes it seem almost a product of labor?The passage is of particular interest in our examination of cosmological doctrines based on the creation narrative because its subject, the seventh day, brought Victorius beyond his principal patristic sources. Ambrose's Hexaemeron, for example, cited by Hovingh as a major source of Victorius' ideas on that portion of the poem, offers no speculation on the seventh day. Augustine, a tireless commentator on Genesis and, according to Hovingh, the second major source for Victorius' commentary on the creation, does discuss the seventh day but is at variance with Victorius' presentation in key places. Additionally, the passage consists mostly of commentary. Thirty of the thirty-four lines ( 17~204) ay be so regarded. The other four lines present expanded physical description. Victorius' use of such a high proportion of commentary on his already extended paraphrase of Gen. 2:2-7 merits close study. This usage displays his knowledge of the rich heritage of exegetical motifs and attitudes and his ability to select, arrange and advance them independently, bringing the whole into thematic harrnony.The controlling issue of this passage is the nature of God's activity on the seventh day: that is, in what sense he is said to have rested from his work of making the universe. The issue has a long history of commentary, with Philo of Alexandria as a major influence on much subsequent patristic discussion. In Philo there is a tendency to acknowledge the eternal nature of God's creative activity and to interpret accordingly the scriptural testimony of his rest:First of all, then, on the seventh day the Creator, having brought to an end the formation of mortal things, begins the shaping of others more divine. For God never leaves off making, but even as it is the property of fire to burn and of snow to chill, so it is the property of God to make: nay more so by far, inasmuch as he is to all besides the source of action. Excellently, moreover, does Moses say "caused to rest" not "rested"; for he causes to rest that which, though actually not in operation, is apparently making, but he himself never ceases making. For this reason Moses adds after "he caused to rest" the words "from what he had begun." For whereas things produced by human arts when finished stand still and remain as they are, the products of divine skill, when completed, begin again to move.

[Legum alleg. 1.5-6. See also Philo, De opificio mundi 89, which speaks of the seventh day in allegorical terms as "the birthday of the universe" (to\ gene/qlion tou= ko/smou) In discussing the importance of the Sabbath, Philo also speaks of the seventh day as the "birthday of the world whereon the Father's perfect work, compounded of perfect parts, was revealed as what it was" (De spec. /eg. 2. 59) A commentator's efforts ío invoke an eternal creative principle in the face of the scriptural suggestion of God's rest on the seventh day can be found as early as Aristobulus (2nd c. B.C.) "And it is plainly said by our legislation that God rested on the seventh day. This does noí mean, as some interpret, that God no longer does anything. It means that after he had finished ordering all things, he so orders them for all time" (ap. Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 13.12.11, in James

75

H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2 [Garden City, N.Y. 1985], pp.841-2) The text of Aristobulus follows the Septuagint reading of Gen.2:2-3.Other early references to the seveníh day suggesting a more literal viewpoint, however, adamantly repudiate any attempt to speak in terms of work on the seventh day. Cf. Jubilees 2:16: "And he completed all of his work on the sixth day, everything which is in the heavens and the earth and the seas and the depths and in the light"; and Constitutiones Apostolorum 7.36.19: "For the sabbath is a rest from creation, a completion of the cosmos" (Charlesworth, Pseudepigrapha, 2.683) It is noteworthy that the Septuagint and the Vetus latina, used by Philo and the church fathers respectively, read that God finished his work on the sixth day (Gen. 2:2, LXX: sunete/lesen o( qeo\j en) tv= h(me/ra? tv= e(/ktv. V.L.: et consummavit deus in die sexto) There is difficulty enough over the nature of God's activity on the first Sabbath in light of these versions, which state that he finished the work of creation on the sixth day, but further ambiguity exists in the Hebrew and Vulgate versions of the same verse, which read that God finished his work on the seventh day itself (Hebrew: "E.V. And on the seventh day God finished"; Vulgate: complevitque deus die septimo) Moreover, the two variant readings of God ending his work of creation, either on the sixth or seventh day, were rarely used by one commentator. In the Epistle of Barnabas, to cite the chief exception, the author does seem to have drawn on both versions of Gen. 2:2. Where the interpretation requires the idea of the great Sabbath, the complete eschatological rest, the author of Barnabas adapts the Greek reading: "He finished on the sixth day" ... Therefore, children, "in six days - in six thousand years -" "everything" will be "finished" (Barnabas 15:31) Yet, when an alternative theme is needed, namely that of the creation of a new spiritual world during the great Sabbath, the author draws on the Hebrew version of Gen. 2:2: "See how he is saying that it is not your present sabbaths that are acceptable to me, but that (sabbath) hich I have made, on which, when I have rested everything, I will make the beginning of an eighth day - that is, the beginning of another world" (Barnabas 15:8) [ See Robert A. Kraft, ed., Barnabas and the Didache (New York, 1965) pp. 127-8 and note.] Commentators who use the Vulgate, such as Victorius, may still inherit the general philosophical tradition of the eternal creative principle in the universe, but have far greater incentive to speculate about the way in which the seventh day may be considered as the day on which creative work was done.What further compounds the issue is the second account of creation beginning with Gen. 2:4 and its description of Adam's formation from the dust of the earth. In both traditions the relationship of this account to the hexaemeral verses also has a history of commentary. Victorius' presentation of the seventh day not only acknowledges the eternal creative principle in the tradition of Philo but also speaks literally about the work of the seventh day. In lines 171-5 and 184-90, he speaks in antithetical terms of God's nature as "equally resting eternally and working eternally" (pariter sine fine quiescens/ ac sine f ne operans, 185-6) He also speaks of a definite end to the work of the six days and a definite beginning of a different kind of work (diuersum opus, 174) n the seventh. "It is enough," writes Victorius, "to have seen the Lord [working] six days" (bis ternis satis est dominum spectasse diebus, 177) The seventh day provides examples of rest, not the rest of the creator so much as that of the Savior, whose rest occasioned the resurrection of the righteous souls of the underworld, and that of man in death, for which one can hope before the resurrection of the body. [Alethia, 1.179-80: [quietem] quam sperare iubet populos pro munere uitae/ semper post operum tribuendum facta piorum.] This resurrection is signalled in advance by the account of the raising of Adam from the dust of the earth on the seventh day (178-83) Victorius' development of this typology provides an excellent example of the independent adaptation, prompted by Victorius' use of the Vulgate, of a series of exegetical traditions.The chief intermediary between Philo and Victorius is Augustine. The three passages from Augustine's commentaries on Genesis cited by Hovingh in his article on Alethia 1.188 are sufficiently close to support arguments that the Bishop of Hippo may have served as a model for Victorius' expression of the paradox of God's working rest. This is especially striking in Victorius' antithesis playing ut agat and operans against cessans and quiescens. [P.F. Hovingh, "Alethia 1.188," Vigiliae Christianae 13 (1959) 187-9. Cf. Augustine, De civ. Dei 12.18, nouit quiescens agere et agens quiescere, ed. Bernard Dombart, CCL 47 (cited by Hovingh, ibid., 187-8) Moreover, Victorius shares with Augustine and the tradition of Philo the notion of the creative force that obtains in the world after the sixth day. He also agrees with Augustine's argument that the formation of Adam from the earth is separate from God's creative acts, described by Augustine as "when everything was made at once":Non est dubium hoc, quod homo de limo terrae fictus est eique formata uxor ex latere, iam non ad

76

conditionem, qua simul omnia facta sint, pertinere, quibus perfectis requieuit deus, sed ad eam operationem, quae fit iam per uolumina saeculorum, quae usque nunc operatur.There is no doubt, then, that the work whereby man was formed from the slime of the earth and a wife fashioned for him from his side belongs not to that creation by which all things were made together, after completing which God rested, but to that work which takes place with the unfolding of the ages which is still working now. [De Genesi ad litteram 6.3. (CSEL 28.173) This is the second of three passages cited by Hovingh (ibid., 188) n support of Augustinian influence.]

Victorius likewise speaks, as we have seen, in terms of a different kind of work performed after the first six days. To this point Victorius is in complete accord with the general notion, in the tradition of Philo and Augustine, of divine creative work continuing after the sixth day.It is an easy matter to demonstrate the strengthening of this notion occasioned by Jerome's restoration of the word "seventh" in Gen. 2:2. Among later commentators, for example, Isidore of Seville uses the verse in an anti-Jewish polemic to repudiate the Sabbath as a mandatory day of rest:Nam si crimen est Sabbati otium non observare, cur Deus operatur in Sabbato? Sic enim scriptum est in Genesi: "Compleultque Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat" (Gen 2:2) ergo in principio Sabbatum dissoiutum est, dum Deus operatur in ipso, explens cuncta in eo, et benedicens ipsi diei, qula unluersa in illo compleuit.For if it is a sin not to observe the Sabbath rest, why does God work on the Sabbath? For thus it was written in Genesis: "God completed his work on the seventh day, that which he had made." Therefore in the beginning the Sabbath was nullified because God works on it, completing all things on it, and blessing the day itself, because on it he completed all things. [Isidore, Def de catholica contra Judaeos 2.15 (PL 83.522)

Additionally, Odo of Tournai, in an eleventh-century verse commentary on the works of the six days, is compelled to discuss the apparent contradiction in the scriptural text reading the seventh day:Compleuitque suum septena luce Creatorquod patrarat opus; cautius ista uide.Nil fecisse die Dominus narratur in istaet dicit quod in hac luce peregit opus.Si tamen attente spectes, duo facta uidebisnamque diem fecit et benedixit eum."On the seventh day the Creator completed his work which he had made." See this more carefully. The Lord is said to have done nothing on that day, and [yet] it says that on that day he finished his work. However, if you look attentively you will see two things that were done. For he made the day and he blessed it. [Odo of Tournai, De operibus sex dierum (PL 171.1218) attributed to Hildebert Bishop of Le Mans. See P.Glorieux, Pour revaloriser Migne: Tables rectificatives, p.64 (Mélanges de science religieuse, 9 (1952) Cahier supplémentaire)

The discrepancy was also commented on by Peter Comestor, who supports the reading of the Vulgate by referring to the Hebrew text:Compleuit Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat. Alia translatio habet sexto, et tunc nulla est objectio. Sed Hebraica ueritas habet septimo, et ideo quaeritur: Si complere est finale quldpiam operis facere, quomodo uerum est quod sequiturRequieuit Deus die septimo, etc. Uerum est quod diem septimum fecit, et ipsum etiam benedixit, et post requieuit: Uel compleuit, id est completum ostendit, cum nihil nouum In eo fecerit, et tunc requieuit ab operum generibus nouis."On the seventh day God completed his work which he had made." Another translation has "On the sixth day," and then there is no objection. But the Hebraica veritas has "seventh," and therefore one asks, if to "complete" is to do some last bit of work, how is what follows true: "God rested on the seventh day, etc." It is true that he made the seventh day and blessed it, and afterwards rested. Or, he completed it, that is, showed it completed, since he made nothing new on it, and then rested from new kinds of works. [Peter Comestor, Historia scholastica. liber Genesis (PL 198.1064 5)

It is wrong to suggest, therefore, as Hovingh does, that as far as Victorius' ideas are concerned on this subject, "all his thoughts are known to us through St. Augustine." ["Tandisque Marius utilise le mot consummauit de la Vetus Latina, il suit la conception selon laquelle Dieu a achevé son oeuvre au septième jour. Pour le reste, toutes ses pensées nous sont connues par Saint Augustine."

77

("Alethia 1.188,"187.) The reason for Victorius' departure from the tradition of Augustine and Philo is Victorius' use of the Vulgate. Although in the same article in which he cites the parallel passages from Augustine, Hovingh does acknowledge that Victorius uses the Vulgate conception that God finished his work on the seventh day, he fails to discuss Victorius' development of the paradox in light of the second account of creation. The divergence is made inevitable by Victorius' use of the Vulgate version not so much for the statement that God completed his work on the seventh day of Gen. 2:2 as for the Vulgate's cryptic fínal clause of Gen. 2:3. Victorius builds a series of reflections on the clause quod creavitDeus ut faceret. Reading ut faceret as a purpose clause, and being sensitive to the distinction between the verbs creare and facere, Victorius suggests that God fínished the work of the six days "in order that, on the seventh, he might make [physically, we understand] whatever he had created [spiritually], and now he endows the first man, who was last, with a body - for to establish the causes of all things is not the same as to provide with limbs" (quodcumque crearat,/ ut faceret, primumque hominem iam corpore donat,/ qui postremus erat - nam causas condere rerum/ non quod membra dare est ..., I.187-90) This is a variation on the Augustinian/Philonic theme. Neither Philo, who uses the Septuagint, nor Augustine, who cites the Vetus latina version of the account of the seventh day, makes or, in fact, can make the same direct connection as Victorius between the material creation and purposeful work on the seventh day. In the alleged source passage from Augustine cited by Hovingh, Adam's formation is vaguely attributed to the creative processes which belong to all succeeding time, the operation of God which, as Augustine writes, takes place "with the unfolding of the ages as he works even now" (per temporum cursus usque nunc operatur) [De Genesi ad litteram 6.3 (CSEL 28.173) There is no attempt to link the literal second account of creation with the paradoxical work of the seventh day.In Augustine's discussion of Gen. 2:3, the emphasis is that of his source, namely, the Vetus latina, which leads him to a discussion of the general creative energy which "begins" in the world after the Creation is completed:Ipsius etiam scripturae uerba satis ad hoc admonendum insigniter uigent, si quis in eis euigilet. Nam et consummata ea dicit et inchoata: nisi enim consummata essent, non scriptum esset: "et consummata sunt caelum et terra et omnis conpositio eorum, et consummauit deus in die sexto opera sua, quae fecit et benedixit deus diem septimum et sanctificauit eum"- rursusque, nisi inchoata essent, non ita sequeretur quia in illa die "requieuit ab omnibus operibus suis, quae inchoauit deus facere."The words of Scripture itself are markedly clear in pointing this out if anyone is attentive to them. For it says that these things were finished and begun. Now unless they had been finished it would not have been written: "And heaven and earth were finished and all their array. And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy." On the other hand, unless they had begun, it would not thus follow that on that day "he rested from all his works which God began to make." [De Genesi ad litteram 6.11 (CSEL 28.184) Cf. also De civ. Dei 22.30, where in his reference to the perpetual Sabbath at the time of the Last Judgment, Augustine also cites the Vetus latina version of Gen. 2:3.]

Given the Vetus latina reading of the final clause of Gen. 2:3 quae inchoauit deus Sacere, which parallels the Septuagint reading, w(=n h)/cato o( qeo\j poih=sai, one can understand why Augustine's emphasis on the creative principle is different from Victorius' incorporation of a discussion of actual formative work taking place on the seventh day. Augustine's emphasis, though not in direct imitation of Philo's exegesis of the Septuagint version of Gen. 2:3, does mirror the Alexandrian's insistence on the paradox of endings and beginnings, prompted by the verb h) cato:Rightly, then, did he say that God both blessed and hallowed the seventh day, "because in it he ceased from all his works which God began to make." ... But we pointed out that God when ceasing or rather causing to cease, does not cease making, but begins the creating of other things, since he is not a mere artificer but also Father of the things that are coming into being. [Legum alleg. 1.18.]We can now better appreciate Victorius' response to septimo of the Vulgate Gen. 2:2. Using Jerome's translation and reflecting on its implications, Victorius became one of the earliest commentators in Latin or Greek to present the work of the seventh day in so definite a manner. Victorius shares with the translator of the Vulgate the idea that God worked on the seventh day. This is based on Jerome's literal rendering of the original Hebrew verse, which influenced, as we have seen, Isidore, Odo of Tournai, and Peter Comestor, who all wrote centuries after Victorius:Pro die sexta in hebraeo diem septimam habet. Artabimus igitur Judeos, qui de otio sabbati

78

gloriantur, quod iam tunc in principio sabbatum dissolutum sit, dum deus operatur in sabbato, complens opera sua in eo et benedicens ipsi diei, quia in illo uniuersa compleuerit.For "the sixth day" the Hebrew has "the seventh day." And so we will confound the Jews who glory in the idleness of the Sabbath, because the Sabbath was already then at the beginning dissolved because God works on the Sabbath, completing his works on that day and even blessing the day itself, because on it he completed all things. [Hebraicae quaestiones in libro Geneseos 2.2 (CCL 72, part 1, p. 4)]

Victorius develops Jerome's line of reasoning not only with a description of that work but also with a reflection on its future significance. More important, however, the end of Gen. 2:3 had been virtually a lost clause in Greco-Roman Christianity. Because of Jerome's translation of the Hebrew original of that clause, which contrasts two verbs whose roots bara, 'create' and asa, 'make' [Gen. 2:3: aser bara 'Elohim la asoth] combined with the reading that on the seventh day God finished the Creation, Victorius was able to participate in the long tradition of Jewish speculation on the seventh day regarding the distinction between making and creating in the final clause of Gen. 2:3.

A testimony to Victorius' efforts in interpreting the final clause of Gen. 2:3, where even Jerome's Hebraicae quaestiones are silent, is the great variety of Jewish interpretation. Finding the clause puzzling, Jewish commentators sought to explain the verse in a number of ways. Genesis Rabbah, for example, a compilation of haggadic interpretations of the verses of Genesis with origins in oral traditions dating from the third century B.C., suggests that the clause means that "whatever the holy one, blessed be he, was to create in the future on the seventh, he anticipated and created it on the sixth." [Genesis Rabbah 10.9, Bereschit Rabba mit kritischen Apparat und Kommenlar (text in Aramaic) vol. 1, ed. J. Theodor (Berlin, 1912) p. 96.

Alternative interpretations of this reading preserve the distinction of verbs of the original and read "he anticipated and made it (ve asa) n the sixth." But this still seems to mean simply, that God did the seventh day's work on the sixth. The verbal parallels to Victorius' paraphrase, however, including a phrase corresponding to Victorius' quodcumque, which is not part of the scriptural verse, help further to raise the question of Jewish influence on the rhetor of Marseille. An idea which Victorius does have in agreement with the Midrash on Genesis is that, in one sense, God completed his work by means of the Sabbath itself, for after the Creation of all matter, the world lacked only rest: What did the work still lack? The Sabbath. The Rabbis said: Imagine a king who made a ring- what did it lack? A signet Similarly, what did the world lack? The Sabbath. And this is one of the texts they changed for king Ptolemy, (making it read:). And he finished on the sixth day and rested on the seventh... And what was created therein? Tranquillity, ease, peace, and quiet.' R. Levi said in the name of R. Jose b. Nehorai: As long as the hands of their Master were working on them they went on expanding; but when the hands of their Master rested, rest was afforded to them, and thus he "gave rest" to his world "on the seventh day" (Ex. 20.11) [Genesis Rabbah 10.9, The Midrash Rabbah, Freedman and Simon, eds, vol. I (London, 1939) p. 78.]We have seen that Victorius also suggests, paradoxically, alongside the making of the material Adam on the seventh day, the adequacy of six days for God's completion of the Creation and his use of the seventh to teach us the worthy examples of rest ( 177-8) This is indeed an idea of which Augustine is fond, making use of it twice in The City of God. [Cf. De civ. Dei 11.8 and 23.30.]Many other interpretations of the final subordinate clause in Gen. 2:3 were suggested in Rabbinical commentaries through the Middle Ages, and while many use the distinction between making and creating in their interpretations, none applies the distinction to the second account of creation as work of the seventh day. [See U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, trans. Israel Abrahams, PtM, (Jerusalem, 1961) p. 69: “Many interpretations of this subordinate clause have been suggested, for example: that God created roots in all the species, endowing them with the power to reproduce their likeness (Ibn Ezra) that he created on the first day the elements wilh which to do all the works that are mentioned on the other days (Nahmanides) that he abstained thereon from doing any of the work that he had created; in making which he created; which he created and made; which he created in order to make it (Jacob) and so on and so forth. All these interpretations are difficult; certain emendations have also been proposed, but these are even more forced than the explanations of the existing text" [my italics].]

Philo, moreover, who, as we have shown, is a likely source, both direct and indirect, of Victorius' interpretation of the sixth day, appears to have known only the Septuagint reading of Gen. 2:3. [See also, for example, Legum alleg. I .18, and De posteritate Caini 65, where he quotes the verse, both times, in the Septuagint version.] Victorius' city of Marseille is likely to have had a

79

significant Jewish community since its inception in the seventh century B.C., and there is concrete evidence of the presence of Jews there soon after Victorius' time. [57 Gregory of Tours refers to Jews in Marseille in the late sixth century (Historia Francorum, 5.11, 6.17).

The modern literature on Jews living in Marseille during the Middle Ages is considerable. For the period prior to Gregory's references, Jewish presence there is accepted mostly by comparison of testimonies regarding Jews in other French cities. See esp. L. Bardinet, "Antiquité et organisation des juiveries du comtat venaissin," Revue des Études Juives I (1880) 262-92; A. Crémieux, "Les Juifs de Marseille au Moyen Age, "Histoire des Juifs en France (Toulouse, 1972) p. 13-17; The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1942, 1948) s.v. Marseille; Encyclopedia Judaica (New York, Jerusalem, 1971) .v. Marseille.] He could have borrowed Jewish exegetical concepts from this community, as his somewhat peculiar reflections on the text of Gen. 2:3 find few if any parallels in Christian predecessors who rely on the Greek or Old Latin Bible, which amounts to the great majority of church fathers.

Further examination of Victorius' commentary, however, will confirm his harmonization of this tradition with the Christian outlook, for he continues by introducing the typological motif of the Descensus, the tradition of Christ's liberation of the souls of the Old Testament righteous (181-3) For Victorius, this instance of divine work on the Sabbath has a precedent in the seventh day of creation.

V. Dracontius' Laudes Dei

Book 1, the most widely read of this poem's three books, treats several cosmological topics within the framework of the biblical account of creation. [In a modified form much of Book I even had an independent existence in the version, simply entitled Hexaemeron, of Eugenius of Toledo (d. 657) This work became a popular medieval school text.] The poet's knowledge of doctrine and sensitivity to exegetical issues has been demonstrated in a recent study by Moussy and Camus (1985) The present study will have several opportunities to refer to their observations.

At the beginning of Laudes Dei Dracontius sets out, in a preface to his reflections on the Hexaemeron proper, to stress the idea that praise is bestowed on God by the created heavens and earth in their wonderful array: the regions of the sky, stars and constellations, sun, moon, storms, land and sea; "and also whatever things nature, having been commanded to create, has put forth" (vel quicquid natura dedit praecepta creare, 9) Consideration of the sources of these two expressions has on the one hand led commentators to Ps. 148, where significant parallels to the first idea, that of the universe praising the creator, may be found. [See Dracontius. Oeuvres, p. 236: "Le Psalmiste invite tout l'univers à louer Dieu.

Le vers 5 (quinque plagae septem poli sol luna triones sidera signa) orrespond au verset 3 du Psaume (laudate eum sol et luna, laudate eum omnes stellae et lumen) etc.] But the second idea, that of a mediatory natura creatrix (a phrase the poet uses in line 27) is nowhere to be found in the Psalm, nor is it found in the Genesis account, which, as has often been pointed out, maintains God's direct production of the universe. Nor is it easy to consider "those things which nature put forth on command" as a restatement of the preceding reference to the aspects of heaven and earth. Dracontius is rather alluding to the familiar idea of God's formation of caelum et terra on the first day, just as stated in Genesis, followed by the gradual unfolding of the various created objects on the subsequent days.

This part of the creative work, however, is described as being done by natura at God's command. The idea is found in Epicureanism, but it had already been modified and assimilated into the Christian cosmology before Dracontius' time. Commentaries on Genesis regularly employ the image of natura creatrix as a mediatory creature. This is a qualification which Dracontius appears to have endorsed, for in Laudes Dei 1.23 he calls God rerum causa deus, and in 3.3 naturae conditor et fons. [Ibid. p. 238. Camus summarizes her position on the sources of this section as follows: "Dracontius semble donc s'être essayé dans les vers 3 à 10 à une paraphrase, ou plutôt à une "retractatio" moderne des dix premiers versets du Psaume 148. L'hymne de l'Univers s'y exprime à travers des représentations scientifiques ou des notions philosophiques qui appartiennent au fonds culturel de l'époque et dans un langage qui doit plus à la poésie classique qu'au modèle biblique."]Another appropriation of classical cosmological theory within this reference to natura creatrix may be found in the special emphasis Dracontius places on fire: It is the means by which chaos is routed. The heavenly fire warms the universe and causes water to vaporize, which in turn provides fuel for the stars to burn. The fire's heat provides the means by which all things are sustained:taetrum chaos igne resolvens

80

igne creata fovet; nam totum flamma vaporatet flammae pascuntur aquis, quibus omnia constantnubibus et radiis solis pascentia anheli.Melting black chaos with fire, [God] nourishes created things with fire; for the fire of heaven [flamma] vaporizes everything and the flames feed on the waters, of which [ flammae et aquae] everything consists, feeding on these vapors and on the beating sun's rays. (1.23-6)

Dracontius has again introduced elements of cosmology that are not part of the biblical creation account. Camus hears echoes of the teachings of the Stoics on the generational activities of nature, as expressed by Cicero: Zeno igitur naturam ita definit ut eam dicat ignem esse artificiosum, ad gignendum progredientem via.Zeno gives this definition of nature: nature (he says) s a craftsmanlike fire, proceeding methodically to the work of generation. [Cic., De nat. deorum 2.22.57, trans. H. Rackham.]

The poet appears to have made conscious use of a pre-Christian theory which had been appropriated into the Christian tradition, in this case a modification of the Stoic theory of the presence of a creating and sustaining fire in the universe. The poet presents fire not even as an agent but as a substance in the creator's own work.

Following this preface, in setting out on a treatment of the six days proper, Dracontius salutes the appearance of the light with a litany of praises for its attributes and qualities surpassed in detail and emotional intensity only by the encomium on light of PseudoDionysius. [Gamber, Le Livre de la Genèse, p. 89, n. 3, noticed a parallel in De divinis nominibus 1.4.] Yet even in a passage which could have remained a literary embellishment, Dracontius shows his awareness of and concern for exegetical issues connected with the appearance of light. He affirms that the light came into being before the sky itself:Prima dies nam lucis erat, mors una tenebris:Lux datur ante polos, lux clari causa diei.And so the first day was light's the death of darkness all at once Light is given before the sky, iight the cause of the bright day (1.118-19)

Such a voluntary affirmation enables the reader to assume that Dracontius was conscious of the problems inherent, in particular, in the Genesis account's presentation of the appearance of light on the first day, three days before the creation of the sun and stars. It also suggests acknowledgement of the problem of the creation of the firmament on the second day, even though the biblical narrator spoke of the making of heaven and earth in the beginning.The exegetical arguments used to solve these dilemmas were numerous and varied. Those of primary interest for understanding Dracontius are, first, that the light spoken of in the account of the first day is independent of the radiance derived later from the heavenly bodies, and, second, that the heaven spoken of in the first biblical verse refers to something other than the firmament or caelum created on the second day. It appears to be Dracontius' desire consciously to support these interpretations over against a range of others. In the first place, as Camus has observed, he was under no obligation to relate the creation of light to that of the heavens. He could have simply presented the biblical order of events without commentary, or he could have attempted to correct the order of events, as Hilarius did (Metrum, 4~50) by mentioning the creation of light after the separation of the waters from the land. Dracontius, instead, not only states that the light preceded the creation of the sky but also calls light itself, not the sun, the cause of the day's brightness. This type of positioning has led Camus to comment that "whatever the depth and precision of Dracontius' exegetical formation and the extent of his readings in his domain, it seems in any case impossible to see in him a naive reader of the Bible." [Dracontius. Oeuvres, p. 261.] He is in fact more liable to criticism for naiveté or at least lack of interest in the scientific theories of his time. But a tendency to incur this kind of criticism is not peculiar to Dracontius, given the many patristic authors who defended the independence of light from the sun for theological purposes, particularly that of reducing the status of the sun from the rank of divinity.

In his treatment of the work of the second day, Dracontius supports a controversial exegesis regarding the existence of waters above the firmament. In defense of the biblical configuration, he marks the location of the supercelestial waters, and against whatever opposition to the physical improbability of waters suspended in the sky, affirms that God's command lies behind the phenomenon:et supra caelos ingentia flumina danturac dominatur aqua glomeratis fluctibus alma,

81

ignibus aethereis caelesti sede locatis.unda beata nimis, meruit quae tecta polorum,celsa favore dei, iussu suspensa tonantis.And above the heavens vast floods are made and the celestial fires that reside in the heavenly abode are lorded over by the water which nourishes them with heaps of waves. This water is truly blessed which has merited the roof of the sky, exalted by divine favor, and kept there by his command. (1.139-43)

This emphasis appears to resort to the ultimate answer given by defenders of the literal Genesis to appeals to the natural law that water, being heavier, could not remain suspended above air. As the prose commentators did before him, Dracontius invokes the superiority of the creator's will to all natural law.Still, the poet may also have had some physical basis for understanding the phenomenon, for in his third day narrative he speaks of the waters below the firmament as receiving their liquid properties:

fluctibus inmensis pelagi freta glauca liquescuntet mare navigerum quatitur spumantibus undis.

The grey straits of the deep become liquid with massive amounts of water and a sea, able to be sailed on, is agitated with spuming waves. (I.150, [164])

Here I disagree with Camus, who considers this adjective an ornamental epithet "aussi anachronique qu'inutile." On the contrary, to observe the liquid sea's potential for carrying ships is further testimony to its new fluid state, which is precisely the idea Dracontius meant to convey.]This may imply that Dracontius understood the waters above the firmament as existing without weight, a vaporous material at home above the upper air, much as Basil had speculated (Basil, Hex. 3.27 B-C) Dracontius' interest in the matter nevertheless appears dominated by theology rather than science, so much so that Camus considered the poet "indifferent to the objections of science and good sense." (Dracontius. Oeuvres, p. 266) For our purposes it is important to note the poet's theological motivation. His emphasis remains constant: praise for the Creator's total control over the universe.Dracontius' third-day narrative, patterned after the biblical account, also contains a description of the appearance of dry land and the rise of vegetation. To this section he adds a passage depicting the special nature of the garden of paradise, inspired by the biblical reference to paradise that is found in the so-named second creation account. As is evident from virtually every work treating Genesis in the biblical epic tradition, the poets were eager to describe paradise because it provided an opportunity for the sheer poetic enjoyment of demonstrating skill at depicting nature in emulation of the masterful golden age landscapes presented in the classical epics. In this application of classical descriptions to the biblical framework, however, the poets had another occasion to breathe new life and religious significance into the literary motifs of classical epic. In Dracontius we find the characteristics of the golden age poetic description applied to paradise, the happy place that sends out four rivers: etemal spring eternally productive of fruit and flower, an abundance of food and drink in a climate remarkable for its gentleness and absence of storms. Some specific motifs are employed as well. Toward the end of the discussion, for example, the poet focuses on the virtues of honey, which, in typical golden age fashion, is ready without the work of bees:nectaris aetherei sudant ex arbore mellaHoney like heavenly nectar exudes from a tree. (1.202) Cf. Ovid, Metam. 1.112).

Lines follow which on one level continue this physical description but on another may have been meant to add a new spiritual dimension to the account:Et pendent foliis iam pocula blanda futura, pendet et optatae vivax medicina salutis, <et quae> dependent sollers pictura figura<t>. [ed. Bucheler/Camus]And from leaves there now hang pleasant cups [of wine] to come, and there hangs a life -giving medicine of a health that is longed for, and there hang [the fruits] depicted in skillful painting. (1.203-05)

The exact nature of Dracontius' reference in these lines has been debated. They have on the one hand been seen to continue the discussion of honey alone, listing some of its individual uses as the basis for beverages, as a medicine, and for its use by painters (according to another emendation of defective line 205) On the other hand, a reference to a variety of objects in the garden of paradise

82

has been seen. The pocula blanda futura suggest wine, and the optatae vivax medicina salutis, spoken of with regard to the garden of paradise, suggests the tree of life, which was even an image used in the patristic period as a figure of Christ. This sense of the medicina was felt by the poem's first editor, Arevalo, and it would have been likely that earlier Christian readers reacted in a similar way. In any case the ambivalence appears to be the happy result of the poet's efforts to combine the classical, biblical and Christian motifs, and it is perhaps most faithful to the tradition to allow both the physical and spiritual allusions stand side by side.65Dracontius' fourth-day commentary points to the principal functions of the sun, several times called salus, in providing light and heat as well as in determining the passage of time and the change of seasons as is emphasized in Genesis. He develops his account by further stressing the sun's status as the principal object in the heavens but ultimately as a creature. Like a general who does everything on command of his king, the sun puts on display, along with the moon, the other heavenly bodies as they begin their service. Thus, as has been seen in the author of the Metrum in Genesim and in Ambrose, Dracontius qualifies this leadership with a portrayal of its eminence as derived from the creator:

Omnia iussus agit, totum sub lege laborat,About the nature of the salus in line 204 Camus writes: "Ajoutons que l'on comprend mieux, s'il n'est pas seulement question dans ce vers de santé physique, la ferveur du désir exprimée par la mise en valeur du participe optatae, disjoint de salutis, souligné par la césure" (p. 276)

miles et ipse Dei, cum luna et sidera cunctaostentans sub uere nouo, sub tempore primo,sub tirone die ueterana in saecla parato.

Himself a soldier of God, [the sun] does everything on command and accomplishes all according to law, and, along with the moon, displays all the stars during the new spring the first season, the novice day prepared for long-lived ages. (I .230-33)

The passage may provide another example of elements consciously harmonized from diverse traditions: a classical metaphor presenting the sun as dux et princeps... luminum reliquorum brought into harmony with a biblical motif, namely the heavenly host in service to the Creator.Dracontius offers a vivid and highly imaginative description of the appearance of fish and birds on the fifth day. Developing the literal sense of the cryptic biblical account, which presents God commanding the waters to produce the animals that crawl or fly as well as those that swim, (producant aquae reptile animae uiuentis et uolatile super terram, Gen. 1:20) he depicts the water itself as the substance which is metamorphosed into flesh:

In corpus solidantur aquae nervique ligantur. musculus humor erat, fluctus durescit in ossa atque oculi gemmantur aquis humore gelato. et quot sunt fluctus, tot forsitan aequore piscesluserunt fluido per caerula vasta natatu et crispante freto perflabant naribus undas.terrigenis factura cibos post cuncta creandis exilit inde volans gens plumea laeta per auras.

Waters are solidified into flesh and sinews are bound up. Moisture became muscle, the wave hardened into bones and eyes sprout forth from the waters as the liquid congeals. And as many waves as there are, perhaps as many fishes frolicked in the sea, swimming gracefully through the deep blue expanse, and began to breathe water in the curling surf. Then a feathered breed leaps out and flies joyfully through the air, destined to become food for the earth-bound creatures who were to be made after all the rest. (1.235~2).

As Camus rightly suggests, the spirit of Ovid's MeJamorphoses permeates the artistry and imaginativeness of these lines. [Cf. Cicero, De re publica 6.17. 70 Dracontius Oeuvres, p. 279.]There is, however, no actual metamorphosis of primeval water into fish and birds in the Roman poet. For the substance of Dracontius' description, therefore, it is important to consider the influence of Greek philosophical and biblical exegetical traditions. We have already seen that the knowledge of the common origin of fish and birds from water is not only present in the platonic tradition but had already been incorporated into the exegesis of the fifth day of creation by Philo,

83

Basil, and Ambrose and even made part of the biblical epic tradition in Victorius' fifth-day narrative. These predecessors, however, do not set the limits of the exegesis of the biblical account of fish and birds. Augustine, for example, participates in a tradition of attempting to discover a subtler meaning of "the waters," in this case as a form of moist air:

Forte istum aerem terris contiguum, quoniam se humidum etiam serenissimis noctibus rore testatur, aquam vocavit, quia et in nubem cogitur.

Perhaps the air that touches the land has been called water, since it shows itself to be moist with dew even on dearest nights and because it is brought together to form clouds."

Dracontius appears to have been interested in taking his explanation as far as was necessary to underscore the creator's complete control over matter.The description of the land animals created on the sixth day shows vividly how the influences of classical literature and patristic commentary are harmonized in biblical epic. In Dracontius' presentation, as in Proba's, the animals come forth possessing those very characteristics by which they will be known in the post-lapsarian age:

cornibus erumpunt armata fronte iuvencique et per prata vagum sequitur sua bucula taurum; cervus in arva fugax palmatis cornibus erratet velox prorumpit equus, pecus utile belli.impia terribiles producit terra leones. simplicitas ovium fraudes passura luporum et raucos timuit discurrens damma molossos. spumat aper, mortes lunato dente minatur et latus obliquans meditatur proelia torvus,ne Massyla fames duros descendat in armos aut aper alter eat spumantia bella movere.promitur omne genus pecudum, genus omne ferarum [De Gen. litt. l. i., ch. 14.inter prata vagum nullo custode per herbas.instar montis habens incedit bestia moles; promitur anguis hians, quatitur sub dente venenum et maculosa repit squamis per viscera serpens, ante venena nocens, missura flatibus oris et subita sparsura grauis per sibila mortes atque eadem membris vitae paritura medellas.

Bullocks burst forth, their foreheads armed with horns, and calf follows bull wandering through grassy meadows; the hart, prone to flee, wanders with branching horns through fields and the swift horse, an animal useful for war, appears. The ungentle earth produces fearful lions; sheep, in their innocence, will become food for cunning wolves; and the deer, running about have shown their fear of barking Molossian hounds, and the wild boar foams at the mouth, threatens death with its hooked tusks and turning its flank prepares to fight lest African hunger descend upon its hard shoulders or even another boar proceed to make foaming combat. Every kind of fiock among the meadows, without a guardian, is engendered, every kind of wild animal wandering through the fields. The massive elephant advances, big as a mountain; the snake comes forward with jaw open, poison vibrating in its teeth; and the reptile crawls by means of scales along its spotted belly, harmful even before it sends poison with the breaths of its mouth and distributes grave death suddenly by its whisperings, but also producing the antidote for life from its body. (1.273-91)

The direct borrowings from natural description in classical poetry, many of which are employed verbatim by Dracontius, must make a strong impression on any reader considering the potential motivation for this passage. The critical editions of Laudes Dei signal so many well-known phrases from Virgil, Statius, and Lucan, among others, as to make it impossible not to conclude that the poet took advantage of the opportunity provided by Genesis to enjoy emulation of the classical descriptions of animals and thereby to give pleasure to his readers. But does this passage contain any evidence of a desire to contribute to the exegesis of the Genesis account? Two points readily offer themselves. First of all, Dracontius immediately follows this descriptive passage with an emotionally charged commentary, which clearly makes the point that God himself regulates all

84

the natural predatory impulses in the animal kingdom. Furthermore, he distributes the animals throughout the wide world, giving each species a place and a time for ferocity:

sed ne cuncta simul passim per cuncta fuissent distribuit loca certa deus et tempora fixit.tempore non uno veniunt quae saeva vocantur: non semper movet arma leo nec scorpius ictus semper habet nec semper agit fera vipera mortes nec semper tollunt ad vulnera colla cerastae; non semper furit unda maris nec semper adurit solis ubique calor: pro tempore temperat ignes, pro regione plagae, pro tempore temperat undas et modo bellantes fluctus freta pigra iacebunt.

But in order that all these things might not be everywhere at the same time, God assigned fixed places and established seasons. Not at one time does all that is called savage come: not always does the lion use its weapons, nor does the scorpion always have its sting. Not always does the viper cruelly inflict death nor always do horned serpents raise their neck to wound. Not always does the sea's wave rage, nor does the sun's heat everywhere burn. He" moderates the fires according to the time, according to the region of the sky; he moderates the waves according to the time, and sometimes the roaring flood will lie as a calm sea. (1.292-301)

The significance of this commentary passage was only partly seen by Camus, who remarks that Dracontius' description of the animals has no equivalent in the other versifications of Genesis, although the prose commentators gave ample space to reflection on the event. If one does not consider Proba's depiction, this is correct. Camus' final question, whether Dracontius "carried to its conclusion the idea of Basil, in painting an animal world where from the first day hunger, violence, deceit, warfare, death and fear reign,"73 seems adequate. But divine pietas, emphasised elsewhere by Dracontius, is also evident here, for he makes a special effort to include the idea that none of these dangers threatened pre-lapsarian man because none of the animals, except the serpent through that eternal and perplexing mystery, was able to come within the confines of paradise. Using some of the same phraseology of his description of the animals,

72 Lines 299-300 are corrupt, and the editors have made various emendations, none wholly satisfactory. I have retained Vollmer's reading but have taken the subject of temperat in 299 and 300 as deus instead of his suggested mare. Hudson-Williams, "Notes on the Christian Poems of Dracontius," Classical Quarterly 41 ( 1947) 96, also rejected Vollmer's mare, as well as the earlier suggestion of Arevalo, sol. He resigned himself instead to the opinion that "no satisfactory subject can be found for temperat in line 300." Camus follows Vollmer.73 "Dracontius ne pousserait-il pas jusqu'à ses ultimes conséquences l'idée de Basile, en peignant un monde animal où, dès le premier jour, règnent la faim, la violence, la ruse, la guerre, la mort, la peur?" (Dracontius. Oeuvres, p. 284. Reference is to Basil, Hexaemeron 9.2 [82A]) Dracontius comments on the security of the garden of Eden:

praeterea solis datus est locus ille duobus: deliciis hominum tantum constructus opacis nec placidas sustentat aves, non ore cruentas unguibus armatas nescit perferre volucres, omne genus pecudum nescit, genus omne ferarum.

Furthermore, that place was given over to the couple alone Built exclusively for mankind's sylvan pleasure, it sustains neither peaceful birds nor those with mouths full of gore, nor can it allow entry to any flying creatures armed with talons. It is ignorant of every herd animal, every wild beast. ( 1.454-8)

Most significant with regard to biblical exegesis, then, this commentary indicates an awareness of the tradition that animals only became a threat to man as a consequence of his own sin. Of course there are alternative ways to make the same point, such as to have the animals' individual predatory characteristics appear only after the sin of Adam and Eve. This is the motif Avitus employs.

85

For a seventh-day commentary Dracontius alludes to the Deus memor tradition of the Jewish commentators, which we have already seen fully developed by Victorius.

VI. Avitus'De spiritalis historiae gestis

Numerous parallels have been drawn between the phraseology of the Laudes Dei and that of De spiritalis historiae gestis of Avitus. See A. Schippers, "Avitus en Dracontius," in Avitus: De mundi initio (Kampen, 1945) pp. 7-24. Yet it has also been suggested that their descriptions of the biblical account of creation differ markedly. E.K. Rand, for example, saw so wide a discrepancy that he concluded that Avitus "is at his worst, where Dracontius is at his best and vice versa." E.K. Rand, Founders of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1928) p. 203. The range of opinion regarding the relation between the works of Avitus and Dracontius, however, does not diminish the general viewpoint that the various elements that make up the biblical epic genre were, before Milton, brought together most successfully in Avitus' poem. By skilfully harmonizing rhetorical motifs and exegetical traditions, Avitus offers us in many respects the best combination of style and substance that the genre produced. Latin versifications of the Genesis account composed after Avitus include In historiam Testamentis Veteris et Novi carmina of Rusticus Helpidius (6th c.) the recension of Dracontius' Laudes Dei by Eugenius of Toledo entitled Hexaemeron, Wandalbert of Prüm's De creatione mundi (ca 850) De operibus sex dierum of Odo of Tournai (ca 1055-1134) and Aurora of Petrus Riga, a verse commentary on Scripture (ca 1200) ontaining 329 lines on the Hexaemeron. This poem was revised and enlarged by Aegidius of Paris. 76 Although much has already been said by critics in praise of the dramatic quality of his treatment of the biblical account of the Fall, his handling of the creation account also deserves praise for its free and energetic adaptation of the biblical narrative. Book I in particular, entitled De mundi initio, shows Avitus' mastery of descriptive verse, which entails a special ability to indulge in mannerisms and rhetorical devices to a degree expected by a sixth-century audience as well as to utilize those devices for thematic purposes.77 More extreme than the scholarly opinions which have been mentioned thus far is the critical view of late antique stylistic by Pierre de Labriolle, History and Literature of Christianity from Tertullian to Boethius, trans. H. Wilson (London, 1924, repr., New York, 1968) pp. 486-7: Those who endeavoured to become writers in the midst of the prevailing ignorance deserved some merit. The infinite value of the privileged ages during which good taste had acquired all its delicacy and had preserved all its balance cannot be better understood than by reading them. There were, however, cultivated intelligences who retained the taste for good style and a genuine respect for that literary tradition which they flattered themselves they were perpetuating. They sought to preserve themselves from the incorrectness of language spoken all around them ... But they seem to have grown unaccustomed to attach importance to the root base of things, to thought itself; they are only careful of their language, and its expression, which they embroider in order to please. They endeavour to overdo each of their phrases. Nothing can be more insipid than their niceties. See also E.R. Curtius European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. W.R. Trask (New York, 1953j, p. 411: "Like their pagan contemporaries ... what they [late antique Christian writers] value most in literature is rhetorical virtuosity ".

The Hexaemeron proper, excluding the creation of man, occupies only thirty lines of Book 1. Avitus does not follow the sequence of the scriptural narrative but freely selects and arranges elements of it. The effect of his abbreviation is a universe that literally bursts into existence in a striking array of contrasting colors, shapes and sizes:

Iam pater omnipotens librantis pondere verbiundique collectis discreverat arida lymphislitoribus pontum constringens, flumina ripis:Iam proprias pulchro monstrabat lumine formasobscuro cedente die varioque coloreplurima distinctum pingebat gratia mundum.Temporibus sortita vices tum lumina caelo fulsere alterno solis lunaeque meatu.Quin et sidereus nocturno in tempore candortemperat horrentes astrorum luce tenebras.Actutum suavi producens omnia fetupulchra repentino vestita est gramine tellus.

86

Accepere genus sine germine iussa creari,et semen voluisse fuit. Sic ubere verbi frondescunt silvae: teneris radicibus arborduravit vastos parvo sub tempore ramos.Protenus in taetras animalia multa figurassurgunt et vacuum discurrunt bruta per orbem: Elatae in altum volucres motuque citato pendentes secuere vias et in aere sudo praepetibus librant membrorum pondera pinnis.Post etiam clausi vasto sub gurgite piscesrespirant lymphis flatusque sub aequore ducuntquaeque negant nobis, illis dant umida vitam.Nec minus in pelago vivescunt grandia ceteaccipiuntque cavis habitacula digna latebris:Et quae monstra solet rarus nunc prodere pontus,aptat ad informes condens sollertia formas.Quodque hominum falso credit mens nescia foedum,per propriam speciem natura iudice pulchrum est.

Now the almighty father, by the power of his Word that arranges in proportion, had separated everywhere the dry land from the waters that were gathered together, limiting the seas with shores, rivers with banks. Now he began to display the individual forms in beautiful light, with the dark daylight giving way, and abundant charm dappled the ornamented world with a variety of color. Then the heavenly luminaries shone in the sky in sequence, with the alternate coursing of sun and moon. Why, even the brilliance of stars at night offsets frightful shadows with sidereal light. Immediately bringing forth all things in a pleasant birth, the fair earth is suddenly vested in grassy meadow. Things commanded to be created, not producedfrom seed, received their nature; and his wish was seed. And in such a way by the fertility of the Word forests take on leaves: trees developed hard branches from soft roots in a very short time. Then the many animals rise up into dark forms and these brutes run about over the empty lands. Birds are raised up on high, and suspended, with excited motion cut paths and in a cloudless sky balance their bodies' weight with swift wings. Right after, fishes, closed under the vast deep, breathe amid the waters and draw their breaths under the sea; those watery places which deny life to us give life to them. Moreover, the huge whales live in the sea and receive suitable habitats in hidden recesses. And God's creative skill makes suitable for hideous forms those monsters which the sea rarely produces. But what the mind of men falsely considers to be ugly, with nature as judge is beautiful in its own way. (1.14-43)

Chief among this account's colorations of the creation narrative is the emphasis on the spontaneity with which the multitude of created objects appears and an unequivocal expression of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. The double use of iam combined with several other words denoting immediacy - actutum, repentino, protenus, and parvo sub tempore - give further strength to the poet's skilful use of the infinitive voluisse and the participle iussa to articulate the direct link between the Creator's will and the production of material objects. The doctrine is even further reinforced by the subsequent phrase condens sollertia. Similarly, the repeated reference to the created universe's beauty underscores the doctrine of the inherent goodness of matter. This is accomplished in the description of newly-made earth's exceptional brilliance, radiant with beautiful light (pulchro lumine) ven before the creation of the luminaries of heaven. It is reinforced by subsequent references to the world's charm (gratia) anifested in the outpouring of color, to the beautiful land (pulchra tellus) and ultimately to the poet's own epigram on the beauty of all creatures including those which men wrongly find ugly. Moreover, as mentioned, there is no reference to natural predatory tendencies of the animals prior to the Fall of Adam and Eve. Avitus in fact makes conscious reference to the change in the animals' nature as a direct consequence of the Fall:

Inde truces saevire ferae dudumque timentesexcitat ad pugnam tum primum conscia virtusreddit et armatas unguis, dens, ungula, cornu.

From this time [after the sin of Adam and Eve] wild animals become savage, and then aware of itself for the first time, their power rouses up the formerly timid ones to combat, and hoof, tooth, claw and horn renders them armed. De spir. hist. 3.320-2.

87

In the hexaemeral section, to the contrary, the poet presents only the animals' receiving their forms and running about the lands most innocently. Only the adjective taetras contains any hint of foreboding regarding their later threat to mankind, and even this word may simply mean visible, i.e. "dark," because they are substantial.A particularly noticeable element of Avitus' rhetorical style in Book I is antithesis, an element which has yet to be fully appreciated as a contributor to the doctrinal coloration of the versified creation narrative. A. Schippers, for example, considered the device severely overused by the Bishop of Vienne […Avitus: De mundi initio, p. 49, n. 13]; but not only is antithesis highly suited to the versification of the Genesis narrative, it is also a particularly effective way to form a bond between doctrine and poetry. Antithetical language returns us to the area of religious thought emphasizing the transcendence of God and the mystery of his creation we hear in all exegetes, including the biblical epic poets. Here a rhetoric of contrast conveys the idea.

As a counterbalance to the making of positive assertions about religious mystery and as a way of defending what was believed to be revealed truth against idle speculation, antithetical language had long been used by poets and prose writers, Christian and nonChristian. Among biblical commentators, the use of negative and antithetical description, given the name apophatic or negative theology, appeared early in Philo and subsequently became popular among the eastern Fathers. Antithesis provides an alternative means for writers to uphold the essential inexpressibility of God and his works, a theme which has been mentioned several times in this study with reference to the biblical epics. Although generally agreeing that God reveals his powers to mankind in a partly readable form through the natural world, apophatic theology stresses the inability of the intellect to circumscribe these powers and considers language incapable of describing the essence of God or explaining nature's secrets...

The rhetoric of contrast in Avitus' creation account demonstrates well this affinity between Christian apophatism and the classical literary style. It offers numerous examples of the author's desire to evoke a sense of reverence for the sacred mysteries of creation. Avitus stresses, in fact, that the first sin was the result of excessive curiosity about the mysteries of creation beyond what nature divulged, and God's prohibition to the couple is presented so as to make this point unmistakable:

Nec vos forte premat temeraria discere curaquod doctor prohibet: melius nescire beatis,quod quaesisse nocet.

Let not imprudent anxiety to learn what the teacher forbids by chance oppress you. It is better for the blessed not to know what is harmful to investigate. (1.313-15; cf. 2.277-325)

Even after Adam, he writes, this sin lives on in flesh that is doomed to die (vivit... moribunda in carne cicatrix, 13) To evoke a sense of mystery, then, the hexaemeral passage introduces a provocative series of contrasts related to the formation of the world. Accomplished by the weight of God's Word (pondere verbi, 14) it shines forth in natural beauty as if by its own luminescence, outshining the daylight itself, which is dark by comparison (obscurocedentedie,18). And even during the primordial night starry brilliance mitigates frightful darkness (sidereus nocturno in tempore candor/ temperat horrentes astrorum luce tenebras, 22-3) With the subsequent creation of plant life trees develop hard branches from soft roots (teneris radicibus arbor/ duravit vastos parvo sub tempore ramos, 28-9) Birds balance their heavy bodies with swift wings (praepetibus librant membrorum pondera pinnis, 34) and water, which denies life to earthbound creatures, becomes the very substance essential for the life of other species (quaeque negant nobis, illis dant umida vitam, 37) In forming the great beasts of the deep, God's creative skill gives beauty to their apparent ugliness (aptat ad informes condens sollertia formas, 41) For "What the mind falsely believes to be ugly," writes Avitus, "is beautiful to nature" (Quodque hominum falso credit mens nescia foedum,/ per propriam speciem natura iudice pulchrum est, 42-3)

During Adam's formation, as mud becomes flesh, hard bones draw soft marrow within (durataque molles/ visceribus mediis, traxerunt ossa medullas, 11~17) Then, with the infusion of blood, white flesh receives a purple blush (niveos depingit purpura vultus, 120). And on this, the sixth day, Adam is both master and servant; "Serve me," God proclaims to him, "and let all things serve you" (Tu mihi, cuncta tibi famulentur, 136) Placed above all other creatures, Adam is still a creature himself and although he walks upright, he must bow in adoration of his maker (Praecellens factis factorem pronus adora, 143). Additionally, in his description of Eve's formation from Adam's side, Avitus alludes to the powerful and well-known antithesis of the felix culpa in treating Adam's sleep as a foreshadowing of Christ's sacrificial death (160-9) From the

88

same tradition he points to the bath of life from the wound inflicted on Christ's dead body (protenus exiliens manavit vulnere Iympha/ qua vivum populis iam tum spondente lavacrum, 165-6). Even God's promise to the couple that their offspring would be without end is enhanced by an effective oxymoron, for Adam is told that he will be the author of a great family within which such long life allows children's children to bring their own old-aged children (annosos natos, 179) before the eyes of their parents. [… The entire passage including the oxymoron is a most effective poetic explanation of long life and not simply, as Schippers suggests, a mark of meaningless verbosity: … Avitus: De mundi initio, p. 89].

From God's first creative impulse, through the various phases of creation including the formation of man, Avitus' hexaemeron thus exploits the rhetoric of contrast. One can readily imagine his audience delighting in every turn of phrase as the poet strives to accommodate the esthetics of his day. But one must also see him working to present a literally wonderful and mysterious universe created directly by God and to celebrate man's intermediate role within the celestial hierarchy.

The second half of De mundi initio contains traditional geomythical descriptions of paradise and the regions of the world that are washed by the rivers rising in Eden. These reflections on the primordial earth before the Fall contain part of the poet's doctrinal commentary, and they all emphasize mystery. Paradise is specially reserved for nature's secrets, but even the nearby lands beyond India abound in natural wonders. The race there is situated under the brilliant sky, whose white heat turns their bodies black (candor fervens albenti ex aethere fuscat, 197) Like in color to the inhabitants of this region is the branch of ebony, but here also lives the frightful beast that gives beautiful ivory, whose whiteness contrasts with the dark ebony and whose beauty with the animal's deformity (concolor his ebeni piceo de fomite ramus/ surgit et hic, eboris munus quae porrigit orbi,/ informis pulchros deponit belua dentes, 208-10). In paradise itself the paradox continues. This place, which suffers from neither summer heat nor winter cold, is eternally productive, for two simultaneous seasons, autumn and spring, occupy the year with perpetual fruits and flowers, (fructibus autumnus, ver floribus occupat annum, 237) [This paradox is mentioned both in Odyssey 7.115-31 and Amos 9:13.]

Avitus includes the legend of the phoenix, whose nest serves as both funeral pyre and birthplace on the day that witnesses both events (natali cum f ne, 240). Also, in the stream bed near the fountain lie the precious gems that the world marvels at, but there in abundance the same gems lie as mere rocks (quas miratur mundi iactantia gemmas,/ illic saxa iacent, 255-6)

He describes two of the four rivers which descend from the fountain of paradise, the Nile, which offers terrestrial rain (terrestrem pluviam, 269) o those who farm its banks, and the Ganges, which brings down riches from paradise in the plentiful way that other rivers bring down worthless reeds and rushes. For the Ganges emits valuable refuse (excrementa ditia, 297) nd, as the poet describes with contrasting verbs, vouchsafes (donat) o the world what it discards (proicit, 298) rom the river bed.

De mundi initio then closes with God's warning to the couple. Here, too, antithetical statements both enhance the theological import of the passage and reinforce the poet's emphasis on the sacred mystery of the created universe. First, the couple are blessed through an oxymoron that stresses Adam's custodianship over paradise as well as his freedom from labor in his pre-lapsarian state. "Remain at rest, carefree," they are told, "in the pleasant pursuit of work" (opens dulci studio secura quiescat/ vita, 308-9) The nature of this work, topically involving considerable control over the visible universe, was suggested earlier in Book I (59-70) where the poet elaborates on man's prerogative of possessing reason, subduing the animals, marking the constellations and knowing the courses of stars and the turn of the seasons. Power over nature is extended even to subdue the savage sea and to understand everything within sight… In any event, the laws of nature remain protected (cautas naturae leges, 2.281) In the Genesis tradition in fact the post-lapsarian mind is incapable of understanding even what Adam had taken for granted, let alone what was forbidden to him. Avitus expresses this incapacity by heaping up the paradoxes that were part of the hexaemeral literary heritage.

Immediately after receiving God's blessing the couple are thus warned in an expression equally enhanced by a paradoxical contrast of ideas that they must not investigate the deeper mysteries of creation, which have not been revealed even to them. Here, in an embellishment of the tree of knowledge motif, God says "let not bold curiosity press you to risk learning what (ironically) he teacher holds back" (quod doctor prohibet, 1.314) It seems to be no accident, then, that the couple's sin is cast in a light which shows that what they will do wrong will be to let their curiosity about the nature of the world get the better of them. [Avitus of Vienne's spirittal History and the Semipelagian Controversy: The Doctrinal Implications of Books 1-3," Vigiliae Christianae

89

38 (1984) 185-95].Avitus thus concurs with his patristic predecessors that man's later attempts to fathom the

ultimate secrets of the supernatural through the application of the occult and magic arts are a direct reflection of the first sin. [On the… condemnation of astrology and the black arts in connection with Genesis narratives see Robbins, The Hexaemeral Literature, p. 52, n. 1]. Satan's triumphant speech in Book 2 is filled with antithetical language that suggests his role as surrogate teacher of the couple, to whose right hands he has joined his left, and to whom, a more complete teacher, they now owe more than to their creator. [dextrisque dedi coniungere laevum ... Multa creatori debetis, plura magistro (2.416, 421) Avitus' presentation is therefore consistent with a world view traditionally professing man's incapacity for grasping the world's great mysteries and which is nevertheless capable of refuting those who claim to have attained such knowledge.

CONCLUSIONSCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION IN LATE ANTIQUITY

This book has examined a literary genre, biblical epic poetry, from the perspective of the development of Christian doctrine. The central aim has been to discuss how and why Latin writers of Late Antiquity presented doctrinal themes through a distinctive poetic genre based on biblical narratives. The fundamental relationship explored, that between doctrine and poetry in early Christianity, is not a new discovery. Few scholars would maintain that Christian doctrine is grounded exclusively in "official" prose literature such as creeds and the proceedings of church councils. The Iyrics of hymns, liturgical verse, and other "unofficial" writings of this nature have long been used as evidence of the history of doctrinal development and theological expression. But in the case of the biblical epics scholars have had to accept the relationship between doctrine and poetry largely without the benefit of detailed comparisons of the poems themselves with specific tenets of the Christian faith.In order to bring such comparisons to light, "doctrine" provided the focus, although it is acknowledged that doctrine is only a dimension of any narrative poem. Other dimensions, such as strong interest in the display of rhetorical skill, make the articulation of points of doctrine hardly the sole reason for the composition of biblical poetry. Moreover, the poets vary in the degree of commitment to doctrinal and dogmatic instruction relative to other interests, for instance in heightened description and coloration. The manner in which the poets incorporate doctrinal themes into their narratives differs also. The spectrum ranges from the purely allusive, as in the Heptateuchos, to the overtly explanatory, as in the manner of Victorius. This study has attempted to show, however, that the presentation of Christian doctrine is a significant dimension of a genre which has often been neglected in discussions of the efforts made by the early Christian community toward voicing the articles of its faith. Any recasting of biblical narrative into Latin verse involves an element of interpretation, but the poems treated in this study were composed by those whose degree of exegetical sophistication allowed for significant use of the patristic tradition. In Avitus, Dracontius, and Victorius, there is ample evidence of a commitment to instruction, even a desire to dwell on the issues.

The relationship between the biblical epic and the Christian doctrinal tradition accords well with the historical setting of the poems within the tradition of scriptural exegesis. The works discussed were all products of a relatively brief period during the fourth and fifth centuries, toward the end of the "patristic period" and its centuries-long process of interpreting the meanings of Scripture as the foundation of the doctrines of the Christian church. In their efforts to interpret Scripture Christian writers followed a tradition established by Jesus and his immediate disciples, who themselves had set the precedent by interpreting the Law and the Prophets in new ways. Moreover, apropos of the biblical epic tradition, whose works are largely based on the creation account, the earliest Christian writings provided a special impetus toward the Christian intepretation of Genesis by representing Christ as the new Adam. The church fathers continued this practice of typology, mining the Old Testament for "figures" of Christ.

In those earliest Christian centuries the Jews likewise continued their own established methods of scriptural exegesis; and here again Genesis received careful scrutiny for lessons it could teach about the nature of God and the cosmos, especially insofar as lessons regarding man's relation to them could be learned. Corresponding interest in enriching and adding extra detail to the frequently cryptic biblical narratives continued in the haggadic tradition. These activities also had their counterpart in Christian culture in much of the speculative effort of the church fathers.

Throughout the patristic period, Christian exegetes were able to draw upon the substance of Jewish interpretation, but they did not set out to duplicate the interpretive literary forms of

90

Judaism. Instead, Christians developed their exegetical traditions largely in literary forms derived from Hellenistic rather than Jewish culture. This is true of the patristic authors studied here as the doctrinal authorities behind the poets, but it is equally true in the wider sense, as all the major church fathers who wrote in Greek or Latin were products of the Hellenistic educational system.

Classical literary motifs such as the philosophical dialogue, the commentary and, as I have intended to show, eventually the epic poem, were adapted and made the receptacles of the concepts and legends of the new faith.' Moreover, the Greek/Hellenistic tradition of literary education not only provided model forms in which to present new ideas but also taught ways to interpret existing ones. Hellenistic literary culture in fact "inculcated a procedure for approaching a text that patristic authors took for granted." [Ezechiel the tragedian, for example, set out to render scriptural events in the form of classical drama. Philo's indebtedness to Plato is well-known; Joseph W. Trigg, Biblical Interpretation (Wilmington, Del., 1988) p. 13]. It is often pointed out that this approach entailed a multi-stepped process. In general, it began with the establishment of a reliable text through comparative reading of manuscripts of a particular work. This was followed by exegesis per se, which meant adding to the base text linguistic and historical information necessary to understanding. Readers then had a reliable and comprehensible text from which to draw morally edifying lessons. The interpretive process did not end here, however. Even in pre-Christian antiquity, the reading of poetic accounts of gods led readers to search for deeper meanings hidden beneath the surface of the literal narrative, since more enlightened attitudes toward the divine nature did not always accord with the episodes taken literally.

Allegory, the familiar term for this interpretive mode, may be said to exist independent of Greek influence in a few places in the Old Testament, but the classically educated church fathers, especially those derived from the Alexandrian School, applied the procedure to all portions of Scripture, whether or not there was difficulty reconciling the literal narrative with accepted theological or moral views. Allegory soon became a chief characteristic of much Greek patristic exegesis. In this process, considerable attention was paid to the creation account, which is the narrative most often selected for treatment in the biblical epic tradition. The reflections on Genesis in the patristic allegorical tradition were concerned with virtually every important doctrinal theme, but the fundamental doctrines of the nature of God and the universe received special attention.

Allegorical interpretation was thus one of the principal ways in which Hellenistic culture became intermingled with the elements of Christianity and contributed to its development. Christians, however, were simultaneously appropriating classical culture and finding themselves having to refute many of its practices and assumptions. Forces were therefore at work to curb the application of allegory to the revealed word. Writers of the so-called Antiochene school labored to maintain the historical or literal level of the scriptural text as the principal level for conveying the truth about God, the universe, and human nature. Here again, the interpretation of Genesis played a significant role. In opposition to pagan myth concerning the nature of the universe, Theophilus of Antioch (ca 180) for example, presented an interpretation of the Genesis account which did not resort to allegory but attempted to preserve the validity of the literal narrative as a factual basis upon which to build an edifying commentary. [Ad Autolicum 2.9-32]. The Alexandrian and Antiochene streams of biblical exegesis are no longer depicted as mutually exclusive or in hopeless opposition but only as distinct in their emphasis… Some sense of this mutual presence may be seen on the one hand in Basil's deep regard for the historical basis of Genesis in his Hexaemeron, and on the other in the allegorical speculations of his own brother Gregory of Nyssa.

As for the West, from the beginning the Latin exegetical tradition resembled the school of Antioch more than that of Alexandria. In the early third century Tertullian, the first major Latin exegete, for example, shows a willlingness to interpret the Old Testament figuratively, but he does not resort to allegorizing episodes such as the creation account, whose validity for him was in their historical sense. The fourth century witnessed the introduction of major Greek writers, both Alexandrian and Antiochene, into the Latin West, especially Origen through Rufinus and Jerome, and Basil through Ambrose; but this influx did not change the general tenor of western exegesis. Joseph Trigg has characterized this tenor according to three main features. First is a certain "coolness" toward allegorical interpretation; second, a legal sensibility as opposed to a mystical one; and third, a "closed" criterion of interpretation, intent on finding the meaning in a particular passage, as opposed to an "open" interpretation, involved in discovering an endless wealth of meaning. Trigg sees something of an epitome of the western mode of interpretation in Augustine, who strove "to uphold the literal sense at all times, and to make the figurative sense clearly subordinate to it." [Biblical Interpretation, pp. 40-41. 46]. To this description should be added Augustine's profound respect for the "inscrutability factor" concerning our ability to learn about God. This recognition of limits in knowing the divine is evident throughout the exegetical

91

writings, in both prose and verse.The age of the Latin biblical epics came at the latter part of the patristic period. By the time of their composition the Church in general was enjoying an environment in which essential Christian doctrines, namely those relating to the nature of God and the universe, had been formulated and "errors" related to those doctrines refuted or well on their way toward refutation. Orthodoxy had committed itself to the concept that the Scriptures were one and that any interpretation thereof depended upon divine inspiration and had to be consistent with the Church's rule of faith. It accepted for the most part the value of secular studies, especially grammar and logic as essential for the understanding of the revealed word. These are principles which the biblical epic poets as well as the church fathers never grew tired of expressing. Moreover, the western Church had developed its distinctive character of scriptural exegesis. All of these factors gave poets a sound cultural, religious and doctrinal basis on which to build. The impetus for composing poetry modeled after the great classical epics came largely from the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire in the fourth century. Most important is the consequent mission to educate in the open, in the mode of the familiar Hellenistic/Roman literary culture, retaining and adapting the best of the old regime to the service of the new era.

Nota bibliographica

Armstrong, G.T., Die Genesis in der alten Kirche: Beiträge zur Gesch. bibl. Hermen. (Tübingen, 1962); Brudevold, A.Eliz., Proba: The Christian Matron as Teacher (Thesis, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, 1978); Capponi, F., I limiti didascalici nella poesia di A.E. Avito, Latomus 26 (1967) 151-64; Cariddi, Cat., Il centone di Proba Petronia (Napoli 1971); Clark, E. - Hatch, D., The Golden Bough. The Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba (Chico, Ca., 1981) -, Jesus as Hero in the Vergilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba, Vergilius 27 (1981) 1-9; Fontaine, J., Naissance de la poésie dans l’occident chrétien (Paris 1981); Forstner, K., Zur Bibeldichtung des Avitus von Vienne, in Symmicta G. Pfligersdorffer (Rome 1980) pp. 43-60; Frey, L.H ., The Rhetoric of Latin Christian Epic Poetry, Duquesne Studies, Annuale Mediaevale 2 (1961) 15-30; Früchtel, Urs., Die kosmologischen Vorstellungen bei Philo von Alexandrie: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Genesisexegese (Leiden 1968); Gamber, St., Le Livre de la Genèse dans la poésie latine au Ve siècle (Paris, 1899, r. Geneva 1977); Homey, H.H., Studien zur Alethia des Claudius Marius Victorius (Diss. Bonn 1972); Kartschoke, D., Bibeldichtung: Studien zur Geschichte der epischen Bibelparaphrase von Juvencus bis Otfrid von Weissenburg (Munich 1975); Kelly, J.N.D., Early Christian Doctrines (5th ed., London 1977); Kirkconnell, W., The Celestial Cycle (Toronto 1952) Malsbary, Ger., Epic Exegesis and the Use of Vergil in the Early Biblical Poets, Florilegium 7(1985) 5-83; Miller, W.T., Early Christian and Jewish Hermeneutic of Genesis 18,1-16 and 32, 23-33 (Diss. New York 1979); Nodes, D.J., Avitus of Vienne's Spiritual History: Its Theme and Doctrinal Implications (Diss. Toronto 1981); Opelt, Il., Der Zürnende Christus im Cento der Proba, J. Antike und Christ. 7 (1964) 06-16; Raby, Fr. J.E., A History of Christian-Latin Poetry from the Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages (2nd ed. Oxford, 1953); Roberts, M., The Prologue to Avitus' De Spiritalis historiae gestis: Christian Poetry and Poetic License, Traditio 36 (1980) 399-407; --, Rhetoric and Poetic Imitation in Avitus' Account of the Crossing of the Red Sea, Traditio 39 (1983) 29-80; --, Biblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase in Late Antiquity, Arca 16 (Liverpool 1985); Romano, D., Studi draconziani (Palermo 1959); Roncoroni, A., L'Epica biblica di Avito di Vienne, Vet Chr 9 (1972) 30ss; Springer, C. P.E., The Gospel as Epic in Late Antiquity: The Paschale carmen of Sedulius (Leiden, 1988); Thraede, Kl., Untersuchungen zum Ursprung und zur Geschichte der christlichen Poesie I, II, Jahr. für Antike und Christentum 4 (1961) 108-27; 5 (1962) 125-57; Trigg, J.W., Biblical Interpretation. Message of the Fathers of the Church (Wilmington, Del., 1988); Vidal, J.L., Observaciones sobre centones virgilianos de tema cristiano. La creacion de una poesía cristiana culta, Bol. Inst. Est. He. 7(1973) -64; Wehrli, M., Sacra Poesis: Bibelepik als europäischen Tradition, in Festschr Fr. Maurer (Stuttgart 1963, r. Formen mittelalterliche Erzählung, Zürich 1969) pp. 51-71; Witke, Ch., Numen Litterarum: The Old and the New in Latin Poetry from Constantine to Gregory the Great (Leiden 1971).

92

SVMMARIVM

CHRISTIANA CARMINA................................................................................................................1

COMMODIANUS (S.III-IV)...........................................................................................................3

VETTIUS AQUILINUS IUVENCUS (+ 337?) .............................................................................5

DAMASUS (366-384).......................................................................................................................6

AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS (348-405).......................................................................7

KATHEMERINON LIBER............................................................................................................10

PERISTEPHANON SEU DE CORONIS (251-389).....................................................................12

APOTHEÒSIS.................................................................................................................................16

HAMARTIGENIA...........................................................................................................................17

PSYCHOMACHIA..........................................................................................................................17

DITTOCHAEUM............................................................................................................................18

FORTUNA.......................................................................................................................................19

MEROPIUS PONTIUS PAULINUS NOLANUS........................................................................20

SEDULIUS (+ C.450).....................................................................................................................24

GAIUS SOLLIUS APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS (430-489).........................................................25

AVITUS EPISCOPUS VIENNENSIS (490-518).........................................................................25

ARATOR SUBDIACONUS (S.VI)...............................................................................................26

MAGNUS FELIX ENNODIUS ARELATENSIS (C.473-521)...................................................27

VENANTIUS HONORIUS CLEMENTIANUS..........................................................................28

BLOSSIUS AEMILIUS DRACONTIUS (S.V)............................................................................29

VERECUNDUS IUNCENSIS (+ 552)...........................................................................................31

PAULINUS PETRICORDIENSIS [PÉRIGUEUX] EP. (S.V)...................................................31

LA PRESENZA DI ORAZIO NEI PADRI LATINI..................................................................32

CARMINA BIBLICA LATINA....................................................................................................39

MODERN SCHOLARSHIP...........................................................................................................39

AVOWED AIMS OF THE POETS................................................................................................45

A) DIDACTIC PURPOSE.............................................................................................................45

B) ORTHODOX INTENTION.....................................................................................................51

CHAPTER TWO............................................................................................................................52

THEOLOGY IN BIBLICAL EPICS BASED ON GENESIS....................................................52

I. PROBA'S CENTO.......................................................................................................................52

II. CYPRIANUS' HEPTATEUCH...............................................................................................55

III. PS. HILARIUS' METRUM IN GENESIM...........................................................................63

IV. VICTORIUS' ALETHIA.........................................................................................................65

V. DRACONTIUS' LAUDES DEI................................................................................................70

VI. AVITUS' DE SPIRITALIS HISTORIAE GESTIS................................................................77

CHAPTER THREE.......................................................................................................................90

CHRISTIAN COSMOLOGY IN THE BIBLICAL EPICS.......................................................9093

I. PROBA'S CENTO.......................................................................................................................92

II. CYPRIANUS' HEPTATEUCH................................................................................................95

III. PS. HILARIUS' METRUM IN GENESIM...........................................................................99

IV. VICTORIUS' ALETHIA.......................................................................................................101

V. DRACONTIUS' LAUDES DEI..............................................................................................114

VI. AVITUS'.................................................................................................................................122

DE SPIRITALIS HISTORIAE GESTIS....................................................................................122

CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................128

SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION IN LATE ANTIQUITY...............................................128

NOTA BIBLIOGRAPHICA.......................................................................................................131

SVMMARIVM..............................................................................................................................133

94