Prudentius

PRUDENTIUS, Aurelius Clemens. b. ca. 348; d. ca. 413. Born in Spain, perhaps at Zaragoza, of a good family, he became a lawyer. According to his verse autobiography, prefixed to his poems, he was a judge in two cities. He visited Rome, where he may have been awarded a court office in the service of the Emperor Theodosius. He retired in his 57th year, unsatisfied by the worldliness of his existence. He spent the remainder of his life in the practice of religion, and devoted himself to the writing of sacred poetry, producing several books (see JJ, pp. 914-5), of which the most important are the Liber Cathemerinon (‘Book of the Christian’s Day’, containing hymns for the hours of the day) and...