Commodian

fl. mid-3rd c.; d. later 3rd c. · Latin Christian poet · Roman Africa (?)

The Ante-Nicene Church

Who Commodian was

The earliest Christian Latin poet whose work survives — author of the Instructiones, eighty acrostic poems in rough, popular verse instructing pagans and Jews toward the faith and believers toward penance, and the Carmen apologeticum. His Latin is metrically irregular and full of the vernacular, which is precisely its value: he wrote for the common Christian of the African towns, not the schools, and his vivid, chiliastic pictures of the end times show what ordinary third-century apocalyptic hope looked like. Date and even province are uncertain — Gennadius places him among the writers of the mid-third century — but his voice is unmistakably that of the people’s church.

Verified single attestation

Gennadius's continuation of De Viris (c. 480) alone; no earlier writer knows the poet.

Common questions

When was Commodian active?

Commodian is dated fl. mid-3rd c.; d. later 3rd c. in the archive, which places Commodian in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

What did Commodian write?

Commodian has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: Instructiones (acrostic poems).

Which early sources mention Commodian?

Commodian is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from Gennadius of Massilia. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Commodian from?

The archive associates Commodian with Roman Africa (?).

Writings (1)

Instructiones (acrostic poems)

c. 250–260

Ye who shall wish to lay aside your errors, come, understand, that ye may find the way of life.

Earliest witness · Cheltenham/Middlehill codex and companions (medieval copies)

Read the interlinear source text →

Primary-source mentions (1)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

On Illustrious Men 15 (Gennadius)

c. AD 490

Commodianus, while he read our writings for the purpose of controverting them, was converted to the faith, and composed a moderate volume in careless language against the pagans.