Corippus, Flavius Cresconius

CORIPPUS, FLAVIUS CRESCONIUS. - Formerly a grammar teacher in a town in Africa, he later went to Carthage. In 549 or 550 he published an epic poem in 8 books, entitled Iohannis or De bellis Libycis, in which he sang the deeds performed by John, magister militum of Africa, in the war of the Romans against the Moors, from 546 to 548; the eighth book is unfinished. It seems that the poem earned C. a place at the court of Constantinople. Later, reduced to poverty, he published, in order to obtain help from the Emperor, a panegyric of Justin, in 4 books.

The choice of subject is not easy in the epic poem, which celebrates episodes of contemporary history, and even less so in the panegyric, in which the first 3 books sing of the first eight days of Justin's reign, and the fourth, unfinished, deals with the protagonist's assumption of the consulate and the festivities that accompanied it. The author considers it the duty of a Christian poet to reject mythological material, while he inserts in several places Christian elements, such as prayers to God, to Christ, to the Virgin, and also a brief summary of the Catholic faith. Artistically his importance is quite limited, especially in the panegyric; he has instead a notable interest as a historical source, for the account of a phase of the war and for the descriptions of the characters and customs of the Moorish peoples.

Michele Pellegrino