MARIO VITTORE, CLAUDIO. - Ecclesiastical writer who lived in the fifth century, author of the work Alethia, identical with the Victorinus (some manuscripts: Victorius) rhetor Massiliensis in Gennadius, De viris ill., 60.
The work Alethia contains a paraphrase of Genesis up to the death of Abraham, in hexameters for school use, which explains the freedom of its content. Gennadius speaks of him « utpote saeculari litteratura occupatus homo et nullius magisterio in Divinis Scripturis excitatus ». The influence of Virgil, Lucretius, and Ovid on the author may be observed (cf. H. Maurer, De exemplis quae Claudius Marius Victor in Alethia secutus sit. Diss., Marburgo 1896); in his description of the work of Creation he depends on s. Ambrose (cf. ibid., pp. 17 ff., 47 ff.). The text begins with a precatio; the end of the work has not been preserved. It exists in only one manuscript.