ARATORE. — Christian poet, born in Milan around the beginning of the sixth century. Having lost his father at an early age, he found in Lorenzo, bishop of Milan, an adoptive father, and in Ennodio a protector. After attending the school of the grammarian Eleuterio, he went to Ravenna to stay with Partenio, Ennodio’s nephew. By Alarico he was appointed comes domesticorum and comes privatorum. Abandoning his political career, he embraced the ecclesiastical one and in Rome became a subdeacon under Pope Vigilio, to whom, on 6 April 554, he presented a poem on the Acts of the Apostles, which was read by the author himself in the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli in the presence of the Pope.
A.’s Latin is that of the schools of rhetoric; his prosody is that of the finest contemporary poets; his metre reveals a refined technique. Intended to be read by learned persons who would appreciate the poetic and biblical reminiscences, the acute mystical interpretations, and the metrical and rhythmic subtleties placed at the service of the new faith, in honor of the apostles Pietro and Paolo, the poem is a literary and refined work, which was highly praised by contemporaries and by medieval writers.
There also remain from A. three elegiac compositions in the form of letters, addressed respectively to the abbot Floriano, to Pope Vigilio, and to his friend Partenio, written on the occasion of sending a copy of the poem.
subdisc. recitante, distinctia diebus ambo libri quattuor vicibus sunt suditi... propter repetitiones assiduas quas cum favore multiplici postulabant».
A good edition with commentary is that of Arntzen, reproduced in PL. 68, 58–252; new editions: G. L. Perugi, Venice 1909, and Rome 1911. Cf. C. L. Leimbach, Über den Dichter Arator, in Theol. Studien und Kritiken, 46 (1873), pp. 225–70; M. Manitius, Gesch. der lat. Liter. des Mittelalters, I, Munich 1911, p. 161; O. Ferrari, Le allegorie del poeta A., in Athenæum (studi per. di lett. e storia), 2 (1914), pp. 417–34; I. Schrödinger, Das Epos des Arator, Weiden 1915; A. Ansorge, De Aratore veterum poetorum Latinarum imitatore, Breslau 1915; A. Beltrami, Gli scritti latini della Liguria medioevole, Genoa 1923; M. Ingunes, Frammenti di A. in fogli di guardia Cassioci del sec. XI, in Archivum Latinitatis medii aevi, 4 (1928), pp. 153–55; A. P. Mc. Kivlay, Studies in Arator, in Harvard Studies in classical Philology, 41 (1932), pp. 123–66; U. Moricea, Storia della lett. latina crist., Turin 1932, pp. 198 and 209 ff.; E. Cuzzi, I tre codici ambrosani di A., Istituto lombardo di Scienze e Lettere 1936, pp. 241–47.