« AUDIT TYRANNUS ANXIUS ». - A Matins hymn for the feast of the Holy Innocents. It forms part of Prudentius’ Hymnus Epiphaniae and consists specifically of stanzas 24, 25, and 34, in which the inhuman massacre ordered by King Herod is described in a most vivid tone. Terrified by the announcement of the birth of the King of Israel, he orders his henchmen to go and slaughter at once in their cradles the children born in Bethlehem. But what use, the poet asks, is such a massacre? Among all the children only one is saved, precisely the one against whom Herod’s soldiers had been sent! This disappointment is one which the poet delights in bringing clearly to light.
BIBL.: G. G. Belli, Inni del Breviario romano tradotti, Rome 1856, pp. 122-31; L. Venturi, Gli inni della Chiesa, tradotti e commentati, 3rd ed., Florence 1880, pp. 172-73; S. Colombo, La poesia cristiana antica, Rome 1910, pp. 103-23; G. Bossi, Gli inni del Breviario romano, versione ritmica, Rome 1919, p. 70; U. Moricca, Storia della letteratura latina cristiana, II, Turin 1928, p. 893; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1947, p. 90. Silverio Mattei