ARATORE. - A Christian poet born in Milan around the beginning of the 6th century. Having lost his father at a young age, he found in Laurentius, bishop of Milan, an adoptive father, and in Ennodius a protector. After studying under the grammarian Eleutherius, he went to Ravenna to be with Partenius, a nephew of Ennodius. He was appointed *comes domesticorum* and *comes privatorum* by Alaric. Abandoning his political career, he embraced the ecclesiastical life and in Rome became a subdeacon under Pope Vigilius, to whom he presented, on 6 April 554, a poem on the *Acts of the Apostles*, which was read by the author himself in the church of St Peter in Chains in the presence of the Pope.
A.'s Latin is that of the schools of rhetoric, his prosody that of the best contemporary poets, and his metre reveals refined technique. Intended to be read by people capable of appreciating poetic and biblical reminiscences, keen mystical interpretations, and the metrical and rhythmic subtleties placed at the service of the new faith, in honour of the apostles Peter and Paul, the poem is a refined literary work that was highly praised by contemporaries and medieval scholars.
Three other surviving works by A. are elegiac compositions in the form of letters, addressed respectively to Abbot Florianus, Pope Vigilius, and his friend Partenius, written on the occasion of sending a copy of the poem.