Prudentius

• Prudentius, Marcus the chief Christian poet of early times, born somewhere in the north of Spain.
• His name, education, and career imply that he was of a good family.
• He was educated in rhetoric and law, and his poems show an exact knowledge of the Latin classical poets, especially Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and Juvenal.
• It is likely that his family was already Christian since the poet is silent about a conversion of his own.
• He seems to have known little Greek and no Hebrew.
• He speaks of his early life as stained with much sinfulness, but must have been held in high respect, for after practicing as an advocate, he twice held an important civil office, and was at last raised to some high position at the emperor’s court.
• Late in life he received some deep religious impression, in consequence of which he gave up public life.
• Some expressions of his seem to imply that he joined a religious society. He no longer had any money to relieve the poor; the only offering he could make to God was his poetry. To this and to prayer he devoted his life,seeking to

spread among the educated classes a correct knowledge of Christianity, or, like a “Christian Pindar,” to sing the triumphs of the martyrs on their festal days and so win them greater honor.

• His lyrical poems were afterwards used in the services of the Spanish Church.
• All trace of him is lost after 405 and the year of his death is unknown.

• The most remarkable characteristic of his works being their variety.
• All the poems have a considerable literary value; they are written on the whole in good classical Latin, with many new words needed for church purposes and with a touch of archaic forms and words characteristic of this period.
• His extant works are: 1. Lyrical
• Cathemerinon: A collection of hymns for the hours of the day and for church seasons.
• Peristephanon: A collection of 14 lyrical poems in honor of the martyrs. 2. Apologetical or Didactic
• Apotheosis: The Deification of Human Nature in Christ.
• Hamartigenia: A treatise on the origin of sin.
• Libri c. Symmachum: Prudentius wrote these books to counteract the influence of heathen invaders. 3. Allegorical
• Psychomachia, De Compugnantia Animi (the Spiritual Combat): The Preface consists of a mystical application of Abraham with his 318 servants freed Lot,was blessed

by Melchizedek, then begat Isaac ; so the Christian, with the aid of Christ’s cross, ie.τιη 318 [τ=300, ι=10, η=8] the cross (τ) of Іησους (Іη) frees his soul, wins Christ’s blessing, and brings forth good works. 4. The Dittochaeon (double testament): Stands by itself and can scarcely be called a poem. It comprises 49 sets of four verses on scenes from the Old and New Testaments.