Poetic Creativity and Political Crisis in Early Fifth-Century Gaul

Abstract

This study re-examines three poems produced in early fifth-century Gaul, Epigramma Paulini, Ad uxorem , and Carmen de providentia dei , in order to address two principal questions: the extent to which the authors, as Gallic Christians who lived through the events immediately following the breach of the Rhine frontier in 407, were able themselves to impose coherence upon these events, and which features they chose to emphasize most strongly in their literary responses to them. The conclusions, although largely negative, suggest a significant modification to existing interpretations of these works. The poems are more creative, and less concerned with the struggle against the invading barbarians, than has been recognized.