ORIEZIO. - A poet of Gaul (Aquitania) in the first half of the fifth century, probably identical with s. Orens, bishop of Auch. Shortly after the poem De providentia, he wrote a work in two books which, according to Sigiberto di Gembloux (De vir. ill., 34: PL 160, 555), bore the title Commonitorium.
The same political and economic conditions that had inspired the author of the poem De providentia also inspired O. To the grim present situation he opposed the evangelical ideal of love of God and neighbour. Among the ancients, Virgilio, Ovidio, Catullo, Orazio, and Lucrezio, and among Christians, Prudenzio and the Carmen de providentia (in Commonitorium, II, 167-72 and taken up again in Carm. de prov., vv. 35-38), were his models. In his description of hell he reveals knowledge of the Apocalisse of Paolo (v. C. Weyman, Beiträge zur Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie, Monaco 1926, p. 139). The manuscript used for Delrio’s first edition has been lost. Modern editions are based on an Ashburnhamensis manuscript, which con-
tains other poems attributed to O. whose authenticity is doubtful. O. was not widely known. Gennadio does not know him; Venanzio Fortunato (Vita Martini, I, 140 [ed. Leo, MGH, Auct. antiquis., IV, 1, p. 295]) mentions him once.