Editing Ausonius (section)

==Biography==
Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born {{circa|lk=no|310}} in [[Burdigala]] (now [[Bordeaux]]), the son of [[Julius Ausonius]] ({{circa|290}}{{snd}}378), a [[Roman medicine|physician]] of [[Greeks|Greek]] ancestry,<ref>Harvard Magazine, Harvard Alumni Association, University of Michigan, p.2</ref><ref name= Kenney>The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Edward John Kenney, Cambridge University Press, p.16</ref> and Aemilia Aeonia, daughter of Caecilius Argicius Arborius, descended on both sides from established, land-owning [[Gallo-Roman]] families of southwestern [[Gaul]].<ref name="Kenney"/>

Ausonius was given a strict upbringing by his aunt and grandmother, both named Aemilia. He received an excellent education at Bordeaux and at Toulouse, where his maternal uncle, [[Aemilius Magnus Arborius]], was a professor. Ausonius did well in grammar and rhetoric, but professed that his progress in [[Ancient Greek language|Greek]] was unsatisfactory. In 328 Arborius was summoned to Constantinople to become tutor to [[Constans]], the youngest son of Constantine the Great, whereupon Ausonius returned to Bordeaux to complete his education under the rhetorician Minervius Alcimus. He had a sister, Dryadia, who lived to 60, a sister Aemilia Melania, who died in infancy, as well as a younger brother [[Avitianus (brother of Ausonius)|Avitianus]], who died before reaching [[puberty]], whom Ausonius laments in his ''Parentalia''.<ref>{{cite book
 | last =Nathan
 | first =Geofrey
 | editor-last1=Nathan
 | editor-first1=Geoffrey
 | editor-last2=Huebner
 | editor-first2=Sabine R.
 | title =Mediterranean Families in Antiquity: Households, Extended Families, and Domestic Space
 | chapter=Extended Family in the Experiences of Ausonius and Libanius
 | publisher =Wiley
 | date =2016
 | pages =249
 | language =English
 | url =https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mediterranean_Families_in_Antiquity/xN7gDAAAQBAJ
 | isbn = 9781119143703
 | accessdate=2025-01-18}}</ref>

Having completed his studies, he trained for some time as an advocate, but he preferred teaching. In 334 he became a ''grammaticus'' (instructor) at a school of rhetoric in Bordeaux and afterwards a ''rhetor'' or professor. His teaching attracted many pupils, some of whom became eminent in public life. His most famous pupil was the poet [[St. Paulinus of Nola|Paulinus]], who later became a [[Christians|Christian]] and [[Bishop of Nola]].

After thirty years of that work, Ausonius was summoned by Emperor [[Valentinian I]] to teach his son, [[Gratianus|Gratian]], the heir-apparent. When Valentinian took Gratian on the German campaigns of 368–369, Ausonius accompanied them. Ausonius turned literary skill into political capital. In recognition of his services emperor Valentinian bestowed on Ausonius the rank of [[quaestor]]. His presence at court gave Ausonius the opportunity to connect with a number of influential people. In 369, he met [[Quintus Aurelius Symmachus]]; their friendship proved mutually beneficial.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8z027_xmsIC&q=Ausonius Trout, Dennis E., ''Paulinus of Nola: Life, Letters, and Poems'', University of California Press, 1999, p. 33] {{ISBN|9780520922327}}</ref>

Gratian liked and respected his tutor, and when he became emperor in 375, he began bestowing on Ausonius and his family the highest civil honors. That year Ausonius was made Praetorian Prefect of Gaul, campaigned against the [[Alemanni]] and received as part of his booty a slave girl, [[Bissula]] (to whom he addressed a poem), and his father, though nearly ninety years old, was given the rank of prefect of Illyricum.

In 376 Ausonius's son, [[Decimius Hilarianus Hesperius|Hesperius]], was made [[proconsul]] of Africa. In 379 Ausonius was awarded the [[consulate]], the highest Roman honour.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 383, the army of Britain, led by [[Magnus Maximus]], revolted against Gratian and assassinated him at Lyons; and when Emperor [[Valentinian II]] was driven out of Italy, Ausonius retired to his estates near [[Burdigala]] (now Bordeaux), in Gaul.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Magnus Maximus was overthrown by Emperor [[Theodosius I]] in 388, but Ausonius did not leave his country estates. They were, he says, his ''nidus senectutis'', the "nest of his old age", and there, he spent the rest of his days, composing poetry and writing to many eminent contemporaries, several of whom had been his pupils. His estates supposedly included the land now owned by [[Château Ausone]], which takes its name from him.

Ausonius appears to have been a late and perhaps not very enthusiastic convert to [[Christianity]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He died about 395.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

His grandson, [[Paulinus of Pella]], was also a poet. His works attest to the devastation that Ausonius's Gaul would face soon after his death.