Paulinus of Pella
Encyclopedia
Paulinus of Pella was a Christian poet of the fifth century. He wrote the autobiographical poem Eucharisticos ("Thanksgiving"). His poem is frequently used as an example of life in Gaul
in the fifth century during the waning days of the Western Roman Empire
.
. Paulinus was born at Pella
in Macedon
while his father was vicarius of Macedonia
. Thalassius then succeeded his brother-in-law Decimius Hilarianus Hesperius as proconsul
of Africa in 378. Thalassius brought his son Paulinus to Carthage
when the latter was less than nine months old.
He grew up far more familiar with Greek
-- which he picked up from the household servants—than his native Latin
. His education began first with Greek classics including Plato and Homer; when he was introduced to Virgil, he recalls how he "could not catch the beauty and elegance of this foreign language." Just as he was beginning to show some promise in his studies, he was struck down by an ague. Doctors recommended exercise, with the result that hunting and horsemanship replaced books.
Shortly before he was thirty, his parents arranged his marriage to the heiress of a neglected estate; according to his poem, he paid more attention to improving this new estate than he did to his wife. He appears to be at the beginning of a life of luxury and indolence; two major events, however, would change this permanently. The first was the death of his father; the second, and far more serious, was the incursion of the Germanic invaders who had crossed the Rhine on the last day of 406.
Next, the usurper Priscus Attalus
made Paulinus his Comes privatae largitionis, or the administrator of the imperial finances; this appointment probably happened in 414, when Attalus and his Visigothic master Ataulf
were in southern Gaul
. In Attalus' case, since he had no personal property to provide him revenue, this office proved a burden to Paulinus. As a final insult, when Ataulf evacuated Bordeaux
, his followers, seeing that Paulinus was an official of Attalus, looted both his and his mother's houses. Homeless, Paulinus and his household fled to Vasatis (modern Bazas
), only to be caught up in the Visigoth siege of that town. In attempting to escape that city, he managed to convince the Alans
allied with the Visigoths to abandon the latter, who then were forced to lift the siege.
By this point, he had been defrauded of his inherited estates by both Visigoths and his fellow Romans. Paulinus contemplated leaving Gaul entirely and resettling on lands in Greece that belonged to his mother, but his wife refused to make the voyage. Beginning some time after his forty-fifth birthday, his family began to die, beginning with his mother, then his mother-in-law, and then his wife. His two sons died before him; only his daughter possibly survived him, having married years before and gone to live in North Africa. Alone, Paulinus moved to Marseilles, to live on a small property he still owned and to be close to a monastery where he had friends. Yet he lost even this last possession in a mortgage, and was saved from utter destitution only by the opportune purchase of this property by a wealthy Visigoth.
At the age of eighty-three Paulinus composed his autobiographical Eucharisticos. His poem of just over 600 lines is a thanksgiving, although illness, loss of property, and dangers from invasion occupy more space in it than do days of happiness. The account presents a picture of the period, with the expression of high sentiments. Unfortunately the style and versification do not always correspond to the sincerity and the height of inspiration.
, who edited the editio princeps
of the poem in volume III of his Bibliotheca Patrum (Paris, 1579), taking it from the manuscript he used for his publication, which is now lost. A second manuscript containing this poem is a ninth-century manuscript, Berne 317; both the lost and the Berne manuscripts descend from the same archetype.
The "Eucharisticon" was published by Wilhelm Brandes
in vol. I of Poetae Christiani minores (1888). H. G. Evelyn White, also published the text with a translation into English for the Loeb Classical Library
series in Ausonius (1921). Harold Isbell has translated it for the Penguin Classics series.
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
in the fifth century during the waning days of the Western Roman Empire
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....
.
Life
Paulinus was the son of Thalassius, and the daughter of the poet AusoniusAusonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
. Paulinus was born at Pella
Pella
Pella , an ancient Greek city located in Pella Prefecture of Macedonia in Greece, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia.-Etymology:...
in Macedon
Macedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....
while his father was vicarius of Macedonia
Macedonia (Roman province)
The Roman province of Macedonia was officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon, the last Ancient King of Macedon in 148 BC, and after the four client republics established by Rome in the region were dissolved...
. Thalassius then succeeded his brother-in-law Decimius Hilarianus Hesperius as proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
of Africa in 378. Thalassius brought his son Paulinus to Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
when the latter was less than nine months old.
He grew up far more familiar with Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
-- which he picked up from the household servants—than his native Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. His education began first with Greek classics including Plato and Homer; when he was introduced to Virgil, he recalls how he "could not catch the beauty and elegance of this foreign language." Just as he was beginning to show some promise in his studies, he was struck down by an ague. Doctors recommended exercise, with the result that hunting and horsemanship replaced books.
Shortly before he was thirty, his parents arranged his marriage to the heiress of a neglected estate; according to his poem, he paid more attention to improving this new estate than he did to his wife. He appears to be at the beginning of a life of luxury and indolence; two major events, however, would change this permanently. The first was the death of his father; the second, and far more serious, was the incursion of the Germanic invaders who had crossed the Rhine on the last day of 406.
Next, the usurper Priscus Attalus
Priscus Attalus
Priscus Attalus was twice Roman usurper , against Emperor Honorius, with Visigothic support.Priscus Attalus was a Greek from Asia whose father had moved to Italy under Valentinian I. Attalus was an important senator in Rome, who served as praefectus urbi in 409...
made Paulinus his Comes privatae largitionis, or the administrator of the imperial finances; this appointment probably happened in 414, when Attalus and his Visigothic master Ataulf
Ataulf
Ataulf was king of the Visigoths from 410 to 415...
were in southern Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
. In Attalus' case, since he had no personal property to provide him revenue, this office proved a burden to Paulinus. As a final insult, when Ataulf evacuated Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, his followers, seeing that Paulinus was an official of Attalus, looted both his and his mother's houses. Homeless, Paulinus and his household fled to Vasatis (modern Bazas
Bazas
Bazas is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France.-Geography:Bazas stands on a narrow promontory above the Beuve valley 60 km/37 mi southeast of Bordeaux and 40 km/25 mi southwest of Marmande.-History:...
), only to be caught up in the Visigoth siege of that town. In attempting to escape that city, he managed to convince the Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
allied with the Visigoths to abandon the latter, who then were forced to lift the siege.
By this point, he had been defrauded of his inherited estates by both Visigoths and his fellow Romans. Paulinus contemplated leaving Gaul entirely and resettling on lands in Greece that belonged to his mother, but his wife refused to make the voyage. Beginning some time after his forty-fifth birthday, his family began to die, beginning with his mother, then his mother-in-law, and then his wife. His two sons died before him; only his daughter possibly survived him, having married years before and gone to live in North Africa. Alone, Paulinus moved to Marseilles, to live on a small property he still owned and to be close to a monastery where he had friends. Yet he lost even this last possession in a mortgage, and was saved from utter destitution only by the opportune purchase of this property by a wealthy Visigoth.
At the age of eighty-three Paulinus composed his autobiographical Eucharisticos. His poem of just over 600 lines is a thanksgiving, although illness, loss of property, and dangers from invasion occupy more space in it than do days of happiness. The account presents a picture of the period, with the expression of high sentiments. Unfortunately the style and versification do not always correspond to the sincerity and the height of inspiration.
Text of Eucharisticos
Paulinus' name was attached to the Eucharisticos by Marguerin de la BigneMarguerin de la Bigne
Marguerin de la Bigne was a French theologian and patrologist and first publisher of the complete works of Isidore of Seville.-External links:*...
, who edited the editio princeps
Editio princeps
In classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand....
of the poem in volume III of his Bibliotheca Patrum (Paris, 1579), taking it from the manuscript he used for his publication, which is now lost. A second manuscript containing this poem is a ninth-century manuscript, Berne 317; both the lost and the Berne manuscripts descend from the same archetype.
The "Eucharisticon" was published by Wilhelm Brandes
Wilhelm Brandes
Wilhelm Brandes was a Swedish rower who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics.He was the coxswain of the Swedish boat Göteborgs which was eliminated in the quarter finals of the men's coxed fours, inriggers tournament....
in vol. I of Poetae Christiani minores (1888). H. G. Evelyn White, also published the text with a translation into English for the Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
series in Ausonius (1921). Harold Isbell has translated it for the Penguin Classics series.
External links
- Paulinus: Eucharisticus (Latin text, English translation, and introductory material at LacusCurtiusLacusCurtiusLacusCurtius is a website specializing in ancient Rome, currently hosted on a server at the University of Chicago. It went online on August 26, 1997; in January 2008 it had "2786 pages, 690 photos, 675 drawings & engravings, 118 plans, 66 maps." The site is the...
— from the Loeb Classical LibraryLoeb Classical LibraryThe Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
edition; where the text is that of Brandes with cosmetic changes)