MARIO VITTORE, CLAUDIO

Image from page 128
Image from page 128

MARIUS VICTOR, CLAUDIUS.— Ecclesiastical writer of the 5th century, author of the work *Alethia*, identical with the Victorinus (some manuscripts: Victorius) rhetor Massiliensis mentioned by Gennadius, *De viris ill.*, 60.

The work *Alethia* contains a paraphrase of Genesis up to the death of Abraham, presented in examples for school use, which explains the freedom of its content. Gennadius speaks of him as «a man occupied with secular literature and stirred by no master in the Divine Scriptures». One can observe the influence of Virgil, Lucretius, and Ovid on the author (cf. H. Maurer, *De exemplis quae Claudius Marius Victor in Alethia secutus sit*. Diss., Marburg 1896); in the description of the work of Creation, he depends on St. Ambrose (cf. ibid., pp. 17 sg., 47 sg.). The text begins with a preface; the end of the work has not been preserved. It exists in a single manuscript.

BIBL.: Critical edition: C. Schenkl, in CSEL, XVI, pp. 335-408. Studies: A. Bourgoin, *De Claudio Mario Victore rhetor christiano quinti saeculi*. Thesis, Paris 1883; St. Gamber, *Un rhéteur chrétien au V siècle, Claude Marius Victor*, Thèse, Marseille 1884; id., *Le Livre de la Genèse dans la poésie latine au V siècle*, Paris 1899, passim; O. Ferrari, *Un poeta cristiano del sec. V, C. M. V.*, Pavia 1912; id., *Intorno alle fonti del poema di C. M. V.*, in *Didaskaleion*, I (1912), pp. 57-74; Bardenhewer, IV, pp. 637-640; C. Weymann, *Beiträge zur Geschichte des christl. lateinischen Poesie*, Munich 1926, p. 120 sg.; Eltester, *Klaudius Marius Viktor*, in *Pauly-Wissowa*, XXVIII, p. 1839 sg.

Erik Peterson