Ausonius Epigrams

Decimus Magnus Ausonius of Bordeaux was one of the most significant literary and political figures of the fourth century AD. This edition of his short poems gives a line-by-line commentary dealing with points of literary, linguistic, historical and other interest.

Decimus Magnus Ausonius of Bordeaux, whose life spanned the greater part of the fourth century AD, was one of the most significant literary and political figures of his age. After an academic career in his native Gaul he was appointed tutor to the future emperor Gratian, a position through which he achieved great power for himself and his family. He was made consul in 379 and later lived to enjoy a ripe old age as the grand old man of Latin letters. In this modern edition of Ausonius' short poems, collected together under the general heading of epigrams, N.M. Kay gives a line-by-line commentary dealing with points of literary, linguistic, historical and other interest. The epigrams throw light on many aspects of Ausonius' life, career and attitudes as well as on fourth-century Latin literature, and will thus be of interest to students of the fourth-century western world, of Latin literature, and of the epigram form in particular. This edition includes both Latin text and translation.

Ausonius provides translations of the key works of Ausonius, an important later Latin poet whose poems detail the social and cultural life of Gaul and its environment. His often difficult and playful Latin is presented in English by the award winning poet Deborah Warren, enabling a new generation of students to use and understand the poems. With notes and commentary throughout, this volume will be important not only as an example of later Latin poetry but also as a window onto the Later Roman Empire and the beginnings of early Christian writing.

Nothing is known of the Greek poet Rufinus other than that he was the author of a collection of thirty-nine epigrams. In fact he is such an insubstantial figure that his date has been placed at various points within nearly half a millennium. Professor Page here presents a text of Rufinus' poems and a concise commentary on them. In his introduction he considers the criteria by which a date may be established and finds evidence in favour of the fourth century AD.

This book explores dialogue between Archaic and Classical Greek epigrams and their readers, and argues for their often-unacknowledged literary and aesthetic achievement.

Jones offers a lucid and thorough analysis of the economic, social, military, and environmental problems that contributed to the failure of the Romans, drawing on literary sources and on recent archaeological evidence.

Ausonius of Bordeaux, poet, professor, and statesman, lived during the Fourth Century A.D, a time of great cultural and political change. As an imperial courtier, he was closely involved in the administration of the Roman Empire. A prolific and original poet, Ausonius covered an astonishing stylistic range in his many and varied poems. This revised text of his complete works offers over 100 new emendations, and includes detailed commentary as well as four introductory chapters that consider the nature of Ausonius' poetry, his life and career, his influence, and the manuscripts of his works.