PRUDENTIUS. – A Latin-Christian poet (b. 348, d. after 405). Between Saragossa and Calahorra, which claim to have given him birth, preference goes to Calahorra because Valerianus, whom P. greets as his guide (Peristeph. hymn., xi), is, according to the Albeldense and Emilianense codices, a bishop of Calahorra. Of his poetic work P. speaks in a brief autobiography as of a purification and crowning of his life: he recalls his childhood, remembers his skill in lying along with other vices learned from the toga, deplores the faults of his youthful years, recalls duties entrusted to him in the government of noble cities, his military ranks and perhaps that of comes primi ordinis, i.e., count attached to the emperor’s retinue. With his songs he intends to expiate his demerits: “Atqui fine sub ultimo / Peccatrix anima stultitiam exuat; / Saltem voce Deum concelebret si meritis nequit” (Proem. 34-35); then he enumerates in general terms his songs: “Hymnis continet dies / Nec nox ulla vacet, quin dominum canat” (Cathemerinon) – “Pugnet contra haereses” (Apotheosis) – “Catholicam discutiat fidem” (Hamartigenia) – “Conculcet sacra gentium” (Psychomachia) – “Labem, Roma, tuis inferat idolis” (Contra Symmachum) – “Carmen martyribus devoevat, laudet apostolos” (Peristephanon, Proem., 37-42).
P.’s work is lyrical and didactic.
Lyrical are: 1) the Cathemerinon or Before the Day, with its 12 hymns that mystically poeticize the various moments of the day and contain strophes justly celebrated, such as those dedicated to the Holy Innocents: “Salete, flores martyrum” (vv. 125-32); 2) the Peristephanon or Poem of the Crowns: 14 compositions in 3500 verses, in varied meter. It is P.’s most characteristic work; he is truly the singer of martyrdom. P. had no predecessors in this genre, and the stereotyped Tituli of Damasus do not stand comparison with the pathos of his inspiration, although here and there P. elaborates and transfigures some passages. A poet and not a critic, he often took the subject of his lyric from legends already far removed from the objectivity of primitive documents. Not always does literary tact and good taste accompany the author in this gallery of brilliant pictures of exultant, passionate lyricism, rich in meter and technique.
Didactic instead are: 1) the Apotheosis, a defense of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ against heresies and the opposing errors of the Patripassians, Sabellians, and Jews. It is the dogmatic formulation of tradition, above all of Tertullian, whose concepts attain a certain plasticity in 1084 hexameters worthy of Lucretius. 2) The Hamartigenia, or Origin of Sin, in 63 iambic trimeters and 666 hexameters on a problem particularly crucial at that time. The doctrine here too is that of Tertullian’s *Contra Marcionem*; the form, however, is P.’s greatest merit, as a master in poetically rendering the truths of faith plastically and animating his expressions with communicative ardor. The presentation of the devil as sworn antagonist of human nature and the description of hell are of a beauty universally celebrated. 3) The Psychomachia, or Battle for the Soul, is the first great-scale allegorical poem remaining from antiquity. The introduction, of 68 iambic trimeters, typologically describes the life of Abraham, the struggle of Faith (Christ) against the kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah (the vices) that assail Lot (the human soul). This is followed by the grand tableau of the poem in 915 intensely dramatic hexameters: the struggle between Christian virtue and the vices of paganism. Although there are partial models of this kind of personification of abstract entities in antiquity, nevertheless the harmonious conception of an allegorical epic with its graphic setting, animated by poetic expression of Virgilian nobility, is P.’s authentic glory. No other of his works left a deeper or more lasting trace. Medieval art made use of this living allegorism: miniatures, codices, Romanesque capitals gave form to the poet’s fantastic world.
A late echo of St. Ambrose’s struggle against Symmachus (d. 402), when this Prefect of Rome requested the restoration of the Altar of Victory in the Senate, resounds (384) in P.’s two books Contra Symmachum. The Dittochaeon (Double Nourishment) is a series of 49 tetrastich epigrams in hexameters, to illustrate as many mural paintings in some Christian basilica in Spain representing personages and scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
In the literary patrimony of P. lies the creation of Christian lyric poetry and its artistic independence, breaking the narrow limits of liturgical meter and the almost mathematical symmetry of St. Ambrose and giving new wings to inspiration. Yet P. must be read; indeed, his verse excludes his odes from liturgy, save for a few fragments. He made better use than any other of the classics: Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, without losing anything of his originality.
The pomp of his southern rhetoric and the mystical, prolonged symbolism of his works do not obscure their depths and leave his profiles uncertain; despite its defects, however, it remains a great poet, leaving a profound and lasting trace.