The Nicene Age · AD 313–400
Prudentius
b. AD 348 (self-dated), Tarraconensis; d. after 405 (held at the timeline’s ceiling) · Provincial governor · Christian poet · Tarraconensis, Spain
The Nicene Age
Who Prudentius was
The greatest Christian poet of the Latin world, and one of the very few figures of the age who dates his own birth: the preface to his collected works, written in his fifty-seventh year, places it in the consulship of Salia — 348. He had a rhetorical education, practised law, governed two provinces and served at the court of Theodosius before giving it up for religious verse. The Peristephanon, his crown of the martyrs, is a principal source for the Spanish and Roman martyr cults, and the Psychomachia invented the allegorical battle of the virtues that medieval art ran on for a thousand years. Held at the archive’s AD 400 ceiling, as Augustine, Jerome and Chrysostom are.
One attestation only — the work is self-attesting: the author names himself, his office or his circumstances inside his own text, and no independent ancient source describes him.
Common questions
When did Prudentius live?
Prudentius is dated b. AD 348 (self-dated), Tarraconensis; d. after 405 (held at the timeline’s ceiling) in the archive, which places Prudentius in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400).
What did Prudentius write?
Prudentius has 3 catalogued writings in the archive: Peristephanon (Crowns of the Martyrs), Praefatio to the collected works and Psychomachia · Cathemerinon · Contra Symmachum.
Which early sources mention Prudentius?
Prudentius is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from Prudentius. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Prudentius from?
The archive associates Prudentius with Tarraconensis, Spain. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Writings (3)
Peristephanon (Crowns of the Martyrs)
c. AD 400–405[Fourteen hymns on the martyrs of Spain, Rome and Africa — a principal witness to their fourth-century cults.]Read the interlinear source text →
Praefatio to the collected works
AD 405, in his fifty-seventh year[The self-dating preface: rhetorical training, legal practice, two governorships, imperial service, then retirement to verse.]
Psychomachia · Cathemerinon · Contra Symmachum
c. AD 395–405[The allegorical battle-poem, the daily hymns, and the two books answering Symmachus on the Altar of Victory.]
Primary-source mentions (1)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
The Praefatio — self-attesting; his birth fixed to the consulship of Salia
c. AD 405[Not listed by Gennadius; the poet is his own principal witness.]Prudentius · Praefatio 24–26
The verse preface Prudentius wrote in AD 404 to introduce his own collected poems, in which he sets down his age, his career and his reason for turning to Christian verse. Standard text: Maurice Cunningham, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 126 (1966); English verse translation by H. J. Thomson, Loeb Classical Library (1949–53).
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 339 · The persecution of Shapur II, AD 339
- AD 343 · The Council of Serdica, AD 343
- AD 361 · Julian’s pagan restoration, AD 361
- AD 366 · Damasus and the catacomb epigrams, AD 366
- AD 367 · Athanasius lists the 27 NT books, AD 367
- AD 372 · The martyrdom of Sabbas the Goth, AD 372
- AD 378 · Queen Mavia’s revolt, AD 378
- AD 380 · The Edict of Thessalonica, AD 380
- AD 381 · The Council of Constantinople, AD 381
- AD 381 · The Council of Aquileia, AD 381
- AD 384 · The Altar of Victory petition, AD 384
- AD 390 · Thessalonica and the penance of Theodosius, AD 390
- AD 397 · Carthage confirms the canon, AD 397
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Prudentius.
- 1Hispania Tarraconensisprovince only