Prudentius and Juvenal

Abstract

AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS (A.D. 348 c. 405) has been called variously the Christian Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius.' Examination of his poems in comparison with Latin satiric writings shows that he deserves also the title of the Christian Juvenal, as Aime Puech has already implied.2 On first consideration it may seem that the rift between Juvenal and Prudentius is too wide to admit of similarities-that the poet who wrote vividly and sometimes shockingly of the evils which he saw in Roman life would be outside the sphere of interest of a poet dedicated to the promotion of Christian life and teachings. But Gilbert Highet has noted that it was the Christian writers who, after a long period of near oblivion for Juvenal, were the first to discover the worth of what he had to say.3 The highly moral tone of many passages and the sincerity with which he voiced his convictions held a strong appeal for the Christian apologists and poets, who also had a message which they burned to give to the world. And of those whose own writings show Juvenalian influence, not the least is Prudentius.4 Prudentius, like the Senecas, Lucan, and Martial, was a Spaniard. He himself, in his autobiographical Praefatio, gives us most of the few details which we know of his life. Born in Tarraconensis (the exact birthplace is a matter of conjecture), of a good family, he received the usual education of a man of his rank and became a barrister. Twice he served in an official position of some importance, possibly as governor or prefect in cities of Spain. An ardent Christian, he wrote of the Christian's daily life in the hymns of the Cathemerinon. At some stage in his life he made a journey to Rome, presumably on official or personal business, to see the Emperor Theodosius. Out of this journey, during which he visited the shrines of the Apostles and the tombs of martyrs in Rome and Italy, came several of the Hymns to the Martyrs in the Peristephanon. His Psychomachia is the earliest completely allegorical poem. Like many of the great Latin writers of the golden and silver ages,