Editing Ausonius

{{short description|Late Roman poet}}
{{about|the Roman poet|the Swedish murderer|John Ausonius}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Decimius Magnus Ausonius
| image = IMG 3148 Giovan Pietro Lasagna, Monumento a Decimo Magno Ausonio - Milano, Scuole palatine - Foto G. Dall'Orto, 3-gen-2006.jpg
| caption = Monument to Ausonius in Milan
| birth_date = {{circa|310}}
| birth_place = [[Bordeaux|Burdigala]]
| nationality = Roman
| death_date = {{circa|395|lk=no}}
| occupation = poet, teacher
| relatives = {{unbulleted list|[[Aemilia Hilaria]] (aunt)|[[Aemilius Magnus Arborius]] (uncle)|[[Paulinus of Pella]] (grandson)}}}}

'''Decimius Magnus Ausonius'''<ref>Olli Salomies, "The Nomenclature of the Poet Ausonius", ''Arctos'' 50 (2016), pp. 133–142</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ɔː|ˈ|s|oʊ|n|i|ə|s}}; {{circa|310|395}}) was a [[Latin literature|Roman poet]] and [[Education in ancient Rome|teacher]] of  [[classical rhetoric|rhetoric]] from [[Burdigala]], [[Gallia Aquitania|Aquitaine]] (now [[Bordeaux]], France). For a time, he was tutor to the future Emperor [[Gratian]], who afterwards bestowed the [[Roman consul|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 [[poetic meter|meter]].

==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.

==List of works==
* ''Epigrammata Ausonii de diversis rebus''. About 120 epigrams on various topics.
* ''Ephemeris''. A description of the occupations of the day from morning to evening, in various meters, composed before 367. Only the beginning and the end are preserved.
* ''Parentalia''. 30 poems of various lengths, mostly in elegiac meter, on deceased relations that were composed after his consulate, when he had already been a widower for 36 years.
* ''Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensium'' or ''Professores''. A continuation of the ''Parentalia'', dealing with the famous teachers of his native Bordeaux whom he had known.
* ''Epitaphia''. 26 epitaphs of heroes from the [[Trojan War]] translated from Greek
* ''Caesares''. On the 12 emperors described by [[Suetonius]].
* ''[[Ordo urbium nobilium]]''. 14 pieces, dealing with 17 towns (Rome to Bordeaux), in hexameters, and composed after the downfall of Maximus in 388.
* ''Ludus VII Sapientium''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/deciausonius01ausouoft/page/310/mode/2up?view=theater|title=Ausonius: Ludus Septem Sapientum}}</ref> A kind of puppet play in which the seven wise men appear successively and have their say.
* The so-called ''Idyllia''. 20 pieces are grouped under this arbitrary title, the most famous of which is the ''Mosella''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wiki.dickinson.edu/index.php?title=Ausonius_Mosella|title=Ausonius Mosella|work=dickinson.edu|access-date=2008-11-22|archive-date=2023-04-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417001731/https://wiki.dickinson.edu/index.php?title=Ausonius_Mosella|url-status=dead}}</ref> It also includes:
** ''Griphus ternarii numeri''
** ''De aetatibus Hesiodon''
** ''Monosticha de aerumnis Herculis''
** ''De ambiguitate eligendae vitae'' 
** ''De viro bono''
** ''EST et NON''
** ''De rosis nascentibus'' (dubious)
** ''Versus paschales''
** ''Epicedion in patrem''
** ''Technopaegnion''
** ''[[Cento (poetry)|Cento nuptialis]], composed of lines and half-lines of Vergil.
** ''[[Bissula]]''
** ''Protrepticus''
** ''Genethliacon''
* ''Eglogarum liber''. A collection of all kinds of astronomical and astrological versifications in epic and elegiac meter.
* ''Epistolarum liber''. 25 verse letters in various meters.
* ''Ad Gratianum gratiarum actio pro consulatu''. Prose speech of thanks to the emperor [[Gratian]] on the occasion of attaining the consulship, delivered at [[Treves]] in 379.
* ''Periochae Homeri Iliadis et Odyssiae''. A prose summary of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, attributed to but probably not written by Ausonius.
* ''Praefatiunculae''. Prefaces by the poet to various collections of his poems, including a response to the emperor [[Theodosius I]]'s request for his poems.

==Characteristics of works==
Although admired by his contemporaries, the writings of Ausonius have not since been ranked among [[Latin literature]]'s finest. His style is easy and fluent, and his ''Mosella'' is appreciated for its evocation of the life and the country along the River [[Moselle]], but he is considered derivative and unoriginal.  [[Edward Gibbon]] pronounced in his ''[[Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' that "the poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste of his age".<ref>Note 1 to chapter XXVII</ref> However, Ausonius's works have several points of interest:

* His references to [[winemaking]] are frequently cited by historians as early evidence of large-scale [[viticulture]] in the now-famous wine country around his native [[Bordeaux]].
* His contribution to the ''[[carpe diem]]'' topic (if the following poem is indeed his):
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|la|Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus et nova pubes
et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum.}}
|attr1=Epigrammata: «Rosae» 2:49|
Gather, girl, roses while the flower is fresh and fresh is youth,
remembering that your own time is hurrying on.}}

* His somewhat unique ''Cento Nuptialis'',<ref>translated as ''A Nuptial Cento'' by H.G. Evelyn-White for [[Loeb Classical Library]]</ref> in which he fulfils an imperial commission to compose an [[epithalamium]] using the "love is war" trope<ref>See, for example, the discussion in ''[https://www.purplemotes.net/2019/01/13/ausonius-proba/ Ausonius and Proba on “love is war” and brutalizing men’s sexuality]'' (retrieved, 1 July 2020).</ref> by writing it in the form of a [[cento (poetry)|cento]] (in other words, a [[wiktionary:mashup|mashup]]) lifting lines from [[Vergil]]:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|la|Itque reditque viam totiens {{!}} uteroque recusso
transadigit costas {{!}} et pectine pulsat eburno.
Iamque fere spatio extremo fessique sub ipsam
finem adventabant: {{!}} tum creber anhelitus artus
aridaque ora quatit, sudor fluit undique rivis,
labitur exsanguis, {{!}} destillat ab inguine virus.}}
|
Back and forth he plies his path and, the cavity reverberating,
thrusts between the bones, and strikes with ivory quill.
And now, their journey covered, wearily they neared
their very goal: then rapid breathing shakes his limbs
and parched mouth, his sweat in rivers flows;
down he slumps bloodless; the fluid drips from his groin.}}

==Saw mill==
[[File:Römische Sägemühle.svg|thumb|250px|Scheme of a water-driven [[Hierapolis sawmill|Roman sawmill at Hierapolis]], [[Asia Minor]]. The 3rd-century mill is the earliest known machine to incorporate a [[Crank (mechanism)|crank]] and [[connecting rod]] mechanism.<ref name="Ritti, Grewe, Kessener 2000, 161">{{harvnb|Ritti|Grewe|Kessener|2007|p=161}}</ref>]]
His writings are also remarkable for mentioning in passing the working of a [[water mill]] sawing marble on a tributary of the [[Moselle]]:
 
{{blockquote|text=....renowned is [[Kyll|Celbis]] for glorious fish, and that other, as he turns his mill-stones in furious revolutions and drives the shrieking saws through smooth blocks of marble, hears from either bank a ceaseless din...}}

[[File:Sutters_mill.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Modern reconstruction of Sutter's Mill, a water-powered 19th-century [[California]] sawmill.]]
The excerpt sheds new light on the development of [[Roman technology]] in using water power for different applications. It is one of the rare references in [[Roman literature]] to water mills used to cut stone, but that is a logical consequence of the application of water power to mechanical sawing of stone and presumably wood also. Earlier references to the widespread use of mills occur in [[Vitruvius]] in his ''[[De Architectura]]'' of {{circa|25 BC}}, and the ''[[Naturalis Historia]]'' of [[Pliny the Elder]] published in 77 AD. Such applications of mills would multiply after the fall of the empire through the [[Middle Ages]] into the [[modern era]]. The mills at [[Barbegal]], in southern [[France]], are famous for their application of water power to grinding grain to make flour and were built in the 1st century AD. They consisted of 16 mills in a parallel sequence on a hill near [[Arles]].

The construction of a saw mill is even simpler than a flour or grinding mill since no gearing is needed, and the rotary saw blade can be driven directly from the water wheel axle, as the example of [[Sutter's Mill]], [[California]], shows. However, a different mechanism is shown by the sawmill at [[Hieropolis]], [[Asia Minor]], involving a frame saw that is operated by a crank and connecting rod.

==See also==
{{Columns-list|
*[[Ausones]], [[Ausonia (disambiguation)|Ausonia]]
*[[Château Ausone]]
*[[French wine]]
*[[List of wine personalities]]
*[[Roman aqueducts]]
*[[Roman engineering]]
*[[Roman technology]]
*[[Tiberianus (poet)|Tiberianus]]
*[[Watermills]]
}}

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{Citation
 | last1 = Ritti
 | first1 = Tullia
 | last2 = Grewe
 | first2 = Klaus
 | last3 = Kessener
 | first3 = Paul
 | title = A Relief of a Water-powered Stone Saw Mill on a Sarcophagus at Hierapolis and its Implications 
 | journal = Journal of Roman Archaeology
 | pages = 138–163
 | volume = 20
 | year = 2007
| doi = 10.1017/S1047759400005341
 | s2cid = 161937987
 }}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Ausonius, Decimus Magnus|volume=2|pages=935–936}}
*{{cite EB9|wstitle=Decimus Magnus Ausonius}}

==Further reading==
* Booth, Alan D. 1982. "The Academic Career of Ausonius." ''Phoenix'' 36: 329–343.
*Brown, Peter. 2014.  In ''Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD'' Princeton: Princeton University Press, 185–207.
* Della Corte, Francesco. 1977. “Bissula.” ''Romanobarbarica'' 2:17–25.
*Dill, Samuel. 1898. "The Society Of Aquitaine In The Time Of Ausonius." In  ''Roman Society In The Last Century Of The Western Empire.'' London: Macmillan, 167–186.
* Green, R. P. H. 1999. "Ausonius’ Fasti and Caesares Revisited." ''Classical Quarterly'' 49:573–578.
* Kay, N. M. 2001. ''Ausonius: Epigrams.'' London: Duckworth.
* Knight, Gillian R. 2005. "Friendship and Erotics in the Late Antique Verse-Epistle: Ausonius to Paulinus Revisited." ''Rheinisches Museum'' 148:361–403.
* Shanzer, Danuta. 1998. "The Date and Literary Context of Ausonius's Mosella: Valentinian I's Alemannic Campaigns and an unnamed office-holder." ''Historia'' 47.2: 204–233.
* Sivan, Hagith. 1993. ''Ausonius of Bordeaux: Genesis of a Gallic Aristocracy.'' London and New York: Routledge.
* Sivan, Hagith. 1992. "The Dedicatory Presentation in Late Antiquity: The Example of Ausonius." Illinois Classical Studies 17.1: 83–101.
* Sowers, Brian P. 2016. "Amicitia and Late Antique Nugae: Reading Ausonius' Reading Community." ''American Journal of Philology.'' 137.3: 511–540.
* Taylor, Rabun. 2009. "Death, the Maiden, and the Mirror: Ausonius's Water World." ''Arethusa'' 42.2: 181-205
* Yaceczko, Lionel. 2021. ''Ausonius Grammaticus: the Christening of Philology in the Late Roman West.'' Gorgias Press.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category|Ausonius}}
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Ausonius
  |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
*[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=Ausonius&redirect=true Works by Ausonius at Perseus Digital Library]
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator:ausonius Works by Ausonius] at the [[Internet Archive]]
* [http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/Aut33.HTM Ausonius' Opera Omnia]: IntraText Digital Library
* [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_10_0350-0450-_Ausonius_Decimus.html Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina]
* [http://wiki.dickinson.edu/index.php?title=Ausonius_Mosella wiki text and translation of Moselle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417001731/https://wiki.dickinson.edu/index.php?title=Ausonius_Mosella |date=2023-04-17 }}
* [[:fr:Ausone|Wikipedia France: Ausone, vie et travaux]]
* [http://roderic.uv.es/browse?value=Ausoni,%20D%C3%A8cim%20Magne&type=author Ausonius] at [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/43 Somni]

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{{s-bef | before= [[Valens]]|before2=[[Valentinian II]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[List of Roman consuls|Roman consul]] | years=379 |regent1= [[Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius|Q. Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius]]}}
{{s-aft | after= [[Gratian]]|after2=[[Theodosius I]]}}
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[[Category:4th-century births]]
[[Category:4th-century deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century Christians]]
[[Category:4th-century Gallo-Roman people]]
[[Category:4th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:4th-century Roman poets]]
[[Category:4th-century Roman consuls]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman rhetoricians]]
[[Category:Writers from Bordeaux]]
[[Category:Praetorian prefects of Gaul]]
[[Category:Roman-era Greeks]]