Blossius Aemilius Dracontius () of
Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...
was a
Christian poet who flourished in
Roman Africa
Roman Africa or Roman North Africa is the culture of Roman Africans that developed from 146 BC, when the Roman Republic defeated Carthage and the Punic Wars ended, with subsequent institution of Roman Empire, Roman Imperial government, through th ...
during the latter part of the 5th century. He belonged to a family of landowners, and practiced as a lawyer in his native place. After the conquest of the country by the
Vandals
The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...
, Dracontius was at first allowed to retain possession of his estates, but was subsequently despoiled of his property and thrown into prison by the Vandal king Gaiseric, whose triumphs he had omitted to celebrate, while he had written a panegyric on a foreign and hostile ruler. He subsequently addressed an elegiac poem to the king, asking pardon, and pleading for release.
The result is not known, but it is supposed that Dracontius obtained his liberty and migrated to northern Roman Italy in search of peace and quiet. This is consistent with the discovery at Bobbio of a 15th-century MS., now in the Biblioteca nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III, Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples, containing a number of poems by Dracontius (the ''Carmina minora'').
[ Endnotes:
* Editions:
** ''De Deo'' and ''Satisfactio'', ed. Arevalo, reprinted in Migne’s ''Patrologiae cursus'', lx.
** ''Carmina minora'', ed. F. de Duhn (1873).
* On Dracontius generally:
** A. Ebert, ''Allgemeine Geschichte der Lit. des Mittelalters im Abendlande'', i. (1874)
** C. Rossberg, ''In D. Carmina minora'' (1878)
** H. Mailfait, ''De Dracontii poëtae lingua'' (1902)
* On the ''Orestis tragoedia'':
** Editions by R. Peiper (1875) and C. Giarratino (Milan, 1906)
** Pamphlets by C. Rossberg (1880, on the authorship; 1888, materials for a commentary).]
The most important of his works is the ''De laudibus Dei'' in three books. The account of the Creation narrative in Genesis, creation, which occupies the greater part of the first book, was at an early date edited separately under the title of ''Hexameron'', and it was not till 1791 that the three books were edited by Faustino Arévalo. The apology (''Satisfactio'') consists of 158 elegiac couplets; it is generally supposed that the king addressed is Gunthamund (484–496). The ''Carmina minora'', nearly all in hexameter verse, consist of school exercises and rhetorical declamations, amongst others the fable of Hylas, with a preface to his tutor, the grammarian Felicianus (grammarian), Felicianus; ''De raptu Helenae'' (The Rape of Helen of Troy, Helen); ''Medea''; and two ''epithalamia.'' It is also probable that Dracontius was the author of the ''Orestis Tragoedia'', a poem of some 1,000 hexameters, which in language, metre, and general treatment of the subject exhibits a striking resemblance to the other works of Dracontius.
Opinions differ as to his poetical merits, but, when due allowance is made for rhetorical exaggeration and consequent want of lucidity, his works show considerable vigour of expression, and a remarkable knowledge of the Bible and of Roman literature, Roman classical literature.
References
Further reading
*
* "Studi draconziani (1912–1996)", a cura di Luigi Castagna, Napoli, Loffredo 1997
* A. Arweiler, "Interpreting cultural change: Semiotics and exegesis in Dracontius’ ''De laudibus Dei''," in ''Poetry and Exegesis in Premodern Latin Christianity: The Encounter between Classical and Christian Strategies of Interpretation''. Eds. Willemien Otten and Karla Pollmann (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007) (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 87).
* Luceri, Angelo (ed.). ''Gli epitalami di Blossio Emilio Draconzio (Rom. 6 e 7)'' (Roma: Herder, 2007) (Biblioteca di cultura romanobarbarica; 10).
* Galli Milić, Lavinia (ed., comm.).'' Blossi Aemilii Dracontii, Romulea VI-VII'' (Firenze: Felice le Monnier, 2008) (Testi con commento filologico, 18).
Francisco Arevalo, ed., ''Dracontii Poetae Christiani Saeculi V.: Carmina ex manuscriptis Vaticanis duplo auctiora iis, quae adhuc prodierunt''Dracontius, ''Hexaemeron''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dracontius, Blossius Aemilius
450s births
500s deaths
5th-century Christians
6th-century Christians
5th-century Romans
6th-century Romans
5th-century Roman poets
6th-century poets
5th-century writers in Latin
Christian poets
Aemilii
People from Carthage
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death uncertain
Vandal Kingdom