Orientius was a Christian

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

poet of the fifth century.

Biography and work

He wrote the

elegiac The adjective ''elegiac'' has two possible meanings. First, it can refer to something of, relating to, or involving, an elegy or something that expresses similar mournfulness or sorrow. Second, it can refer more specifically to poetry composed in ...

poem '' Commonitorium'' of 1036 verses (divided into two books) describing the way to heaven, with warnings against its hindrances. He was a

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

(II, 184), who had been converted after a life of sin (I, 405 sq.), was evidently an experienced pastor, and wrote at a time when his country was being devastated by the invasion of barbarians. All this points to his identification with Orientius, Bishop of Augusta Ausciorum (

Auch Auch (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in southwestern France. Located in the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie, it is the capital of the Gers Departments of France, department. Geography Localiza ...

), who as a very old man was sent by

Theodoric I Theodoric I (; ; 390 or 393 – 20 or 24 June 451) was the king of the Visigoths from 418 to 451. Theodoric is famous for his part in stopping Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, where he was killed. Early career In 41 ...

, King of the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

, as ambassador to the Roman generals

Flavius Aëtius Flavius Aetius (also spelled Aëtius; ; 390 – 21 September 454) was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most influential man in the Empire for two decades (43 ...

and Litorius in 439 ("Vita S. Orientii" in "Acta SS.", I May, 61).Catholic Encyclopedia: Auch
/ref> The Commonitorium quotes classical Roman poets —

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...

— and is perhaps influenced by

Prudentius Aurelius Prudentius Clemens () was a Roman Christian poet, born in the Roman province of Tarraconensis (now Northern Spain) in 348.H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Classical Literature'' (1967) p. 508 He probably died in the Iberian Peninsula some ...

. It exists in only one manuscript (Cod. Ashburnham. sæc. X), and is followed by some shorter anonymous poems not by Orientius, and by two prayers in verse attributed to him. The first complete edition was published by Martène, ''Veterum Scriptorum Monumenta'', I (Rouen, 1700); then by Andrea Gallandi, ''Bibliotheca veterum Patrum'', X (Venice, 1774), 185–96, reprinted by J.P. Migne in ''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published betwe ...

'' 61.977-1006. The best modern edition is by Ellis in the '' Corpus Scriptorum Eccl. Latinorum'' XVI (Vienna, 1888): "Poetæ Christiani minores", I, 191–261.

Sources

References

{{Authority control 5th-century writers in Latin Bishops of Auch Gallo-Roman saints 5th-century bishops in Gaul 5th-century Roman poets