Commodian

• He is the first of the Christian-Latin poets.
• His life is known from his own writings.
• Born a heathen, he became a Christian and he lived in the Latin west (born possibly at Gaza in Palestine).
• All the poems are acrostic, i.e. the initial letters of successive verses express the theme and title of the poem.
• The content of his writings betrays a practical and sagacious ecclesiastic, filled with benevolent zeal, but

endowed with slight theological culture.

• In Instructions he wrote:
• By thinking that you are safe, even though you fluctuate between Christianity and the world, you go on your way stripped of self-control and broken down by luxury. You are looking forward to so many things in vain. Why do seek evil things? For you will account for everything you do when you die. Consider this, foolish one. Once you didn’t exist, but now you live. You don’t know where you have come from, how you are sustained. You avoid the kind and excellent God of your life and your Governor who wants you to live.

• His works were written ca. 250. 1. Instructions
• Two books of poems; the meter is hexameter.
• The first book is against Jews and heathens in which he defends the Christian faith against pagan gods such as Saturn, Jupiter and Hercules.
• The second book urges Christians to fulfill their duties and avoid sin,and addresses moral precepts.

2. Carmen Apologeticum

• It is composed of 1060 hexameters grouped two by two.
• Verses 1-88 introduce the author, a convert from paganism, who desires that other pagans may participate in his faith in God.
• Verses 89-578 outline the history of salvation from creation to the death and resurrection of Christ.
• Verses 579-790 refute the arguments of the pagans and Jews on the divinity of Christ and give an exhortation to the faith.
• In verses 791-1060, Commodian, who was tinged with Millenarianism, expounds his eschatological ideas.