Oeuvres (Collection Des Universites De France Serie Latine)

by Dracontius, Etienne Wolff (Translator)

Avec ce volume s'acheve la publication des Oeuvres de Dracontius, poete latin qui vivait a Carthage au Ve - VI e siecle, sous la domination vandale. Ce volume contient les pieces VI-X des Romulea , a savoir deux epithalames, deux petites pieces dans le style de l' Anthologie , l' Origine des roses et les Mois , et deux fragments. La publication de ce volume pourra faire changer d'avis ceux qui considerent encore que le vrai Dracontius est le seul Dracontius chretien.

319 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2003

About the author

Blossius Aemilius Dracontius (c. 455 – c. 505) of Carthage was a Christian poet who flourished in the latter part of the 5th century. He belonged to a family of land proprietors, and practiced as an advocate in his native place. After the conquest of the country by the Vandals, Dracontius was at first allowed to retain possession of his estates, but was subsequently deprived of his property and thrown into prison by the Vandal king, whose triumphs he had omitted to celebrate, while he had written a panegyric on a foreign and hostile ruler. He subsequently addressed an elegiac poem to the king, asking pardon, and pleading for release. The result is not known, but it is supposed that Dracontius obtained his liberty and migrated to northern Italy in search of peace and quietness. This is consistent with the discovery at Bobbio of a 15th-century MS., now in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples, containing a number of poems by Dracontius (the Carmina minora).