Decimus magnus ausonius biography

Ausonius (Decimus Magnus), ca.
Decimus Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician interesting chiefly for his preoccupation with the provincial scene of his native Gaul.
Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala, Aquitaine (now Bordeaux, France).

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Decimus Magnus Ausonius

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A professor and poet born about A.D. 310; died, probably, about A.D. 394. The son of a physician of Bordeaux, he studied first in that city, then at Toulouse, with his uncle Æmilius Magnus Arborius. The latter having gone to teach in Constantinople, Ausonius returned to Bordeaux, where he became professor of grammar, and later of rhetoric. Between 364 and 368, Valentinian invited him to Trier to teach his son Gratian. In 368 and 369 Ausonius accompanied the emperor on the expedition against Alemani, and received a young Swabian, Bissula, as the share of his booty. The emperors overwhelmed him with honours, and made him first Prefect of the Gauls, then Prefect of the West conjointly with his son Hesperius (between August, 378, and July, 379). In 379 he became consul. After the assassination of Gratian, his benefactor (383), Ausonius m

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Ausonius

Late Roman poet

This article is about the Roman poet. For the Swedish murderer, see John Ausonius.

Decimius Magnus Ausonius^[1] (; c. 310 – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala, Aquitaine (now Bordeaux, France). For a time, he was tutor to the future Emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. His best-known poems are Mosella, a description of the River Moselle, and Ephemeris, an account of a typical day in his life. His many other verses show his concern for his family, friends, teachers and circle of well-to-do acquaintances and his delight in the technical handling of meter.

Biography

Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born c. 310 in Burdigala (now Bordeaux), the son of Julius Ausonius (c. 290 – 378), a physician of Greek ancestry,^[2]^[3] and Aemilia Aeonia, daughter of Caecilius Argicius Arborius, descended on both sides from established, land-owning Gallo-Roman families of southwestern Gaul.^[3]

Ausonius was given a strict u

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The fourth-century AD writer Decimus Magnus Ausonius started life as a humble teacher in Bordeaux, and ended up as a consul of the Roman Empire. He was a scholar, poet, lawyer, letter writer, politician, tutor to emperors, travel writer, and keen social observer whose works give us an intimate insight into the dying days of the western Roman Empire.

His interest lies not just in his varied career, but also in his negotiation of a period of rapid cultural and intellectual change. Many in the Empire had been won over to an intolerant form of Christianity, which demanded the elimination of traditional pagan elements from public life. This included the removal of the old gods’ statues from public places and their exclusion from the school syllabus. Ausonius not only had to deal with this culture war, but also with questions of personal identity. He boasted of his Gallic ancestry, but was also proud of his status as a Roman citizen, and devoted to Roman literary culture.

Ausonius was born around AD 310 in Bordeaux. His father, Julius, was a doctor. Although of humble origins, he marr