Eumenius (born c. 260 CE at the latest, more probably between 230 and 240 CE), was one of the

Ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

panegyrist A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc, ...

s and author of a speech transmitted in the collection of the ''

Panegyrici Latini ' or ''Twelve Latin Panegyrics'' is the conventional title of a collection of twelve ancient Roman and late antique prose panegyric orations written in Latin. The authors of most of the speeches in the collection are anonymous, but appear to have ...

'' (Pan. Lat. IX).

Life

Eumenius was born in

Gallia Lugdunensis Gallia Lugdunensis ( French: ''Gaule Lyonnaise'') was a province of the Roman Empire in what is now the modern country of France, part of the Celtic territory of Gaul formerly known as Celtica. It is named after its capital Lugdunum (today's Ly ...

at Augustodunum (modern-day

Autun Autun () is a subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the early Roman Empire by Emperor Augustus as Augustodunum to give a R ...

), the ''

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on the ...

'' capital of the Celtic

Aedui The Aedui or Haedui (Gaulish: *''Aiduoi'', 'the Ardent'; grc, Aἴδουοι) were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the modern Burgundy region during the Iron Age and the Roman period. The Aedui had an ambiguous relationship with the Roman Republic a ...

. He was of Greek descent; his grandfather, who had migrated from Athens to Rome, finally settled at Augustodunum as a teacher of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate partic ...

. Eumenius probably took his father's place, for it was from Augustodunum that he went to be ''magister memoriae'' (private secretary) to the emperor

Constantius Chlorus Flavius Valerius Constantius "Chlorus" ( – 25 July 306), also called Constantius I, was Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as caesar from 293 t ...

, whom he accompanied on several of his campaigns. In 296 CE, Chlorus determined to restore the famous schools (''scholae Maenianae'') of Augustodunum. During the periodic crises of 3rd-century Gaul, instruction had ceased, possibly for lack of funding or students, and the buildings had been greatly damaged during a siege of the city in 269 CE. The emperor appointed Eumenius to the management of the schools, allowing him to keep the rank of a senior imperial officer and doubling his salary. Eumenius gave up a considerable portion of his emoluments to the improvement of the schools. Eumenius was a

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. In ...

and had not converted to Christianity, unlike

Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. ...

and

Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November of an unknown year, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from 5th-century Gaul ...

and other 4th- and 5th-century writers from Gaul.

Panegyric

His speech, usually called ''Pro restaurandis'' (or ''instaurandis'') ''scholis'' (''For the restoration of the schools''), was probably delivered in 297 CE or 298 CE in the forum at Augustodunum or

Lugdunum Lugdunum (also spelled Lugudunum, ; modern Lyon, France) was an important Roman city in Gaul, established on the current site of Lyon. The Roman city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, but continued an existing Gallic settlem ...

(modern-day

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

) before the governor of the province. The purpose was to ask the governor if Eumenius might dedicate his salary (or a large part of it) to rebuild the schools at Autun. He praises the emperors (

and his colleagues of the

tetrarchy The Tetrarchy was the system instituted by Roman emperor Diocletian in 293 AD to govern the ancient Roman Empire by dividing it between two emperors, the '' augusti'', and their juniors colleagues and designated successors, the ''caesares'' ...

) and sets forth the steps necessary to restore the schools to their former state of efficiency, stressing that he intends to assist the good work out of his own pocket. He cites the imperial letter of Constantius granting him his position and salary at length, and it is from the address of this letter that the name of the oration's author is preserved. Formerly, other anonymous panegyrics of the ''Panegyrici Latini'' were attributed to Eumenius as well. The most extreme position was that of

Otto Seeck Otto Karl Seeck (2 February 1850 – 29 June 1921) was a German classical historian who is perhaps best known for his work on the decline of the ancient world. He was born in Riga. He first began studying chemistry at the University of Dorpat but ...

, who held that all of them were by him. This view has been largely abandoned today, and Eumenius is regarded as the author of only ''Pro instaurandis scholis''.Nixon and Saylor Rodgers, pp. 8–10.

References

*C.E.V. Nixon / Barbara Saylor Rodgers: ''In Praise of Later Roman Emperors'', Berkeley 1994. *Édouard Galletier (ed.): ''Panégyriques latins'', 3 vols., Paris 1949–55. *Barbara Saylor Rodgers, ''Eumenius of Augustodunum'', Ancient Society 20 (1989), pp. 249–262.

External links

Opera Omnia ex Migne Patrologia Latina
{{Authority control 3rd-century Romans Ancient Roman rhetoricians

Life

Panegyric

See also

References

References

External links