PRUDENTIUS, AUBELIUS CLEMENS, a Christian 'poet of the 4th c., was a native of Spain, and was b. 348 A.D. Nothing is known regarding Into except what he has him self told in a poetical autobiography prefixed to his works. From this we learn that he received a liberal education, was admitted to the Roman bar, practiced as a pleader, discharged the functions of civil and criminal judge, and was ultimately appointed to a high office at the imperial court. The year of his death is not known. In his youth, Prudentius was fond of pleasure, and very dissipated; but as lie grew old, he became very devout, and his writings (which are all in Latin verse) reflect the latter phase of his character. The principal are-1. Cathemerinon Liber (Book [i.e., of hymns] for Daily Use), being a series of twelve hymns, the first half of which were reckoned by the aethor suitable for devotional purposes at different parts of the (lay; 2. Apotheosis (a defense of the doctrine of the Trinity against heretics); 3. Hamartigencia (On the Origin of Evil, a
polemic, in verse, against the Marcionites); 4. Psychontachia (The Triumph of the Chris tion Graces in the Soul of a Believer); 5. Contra Symmacham, Liber 1 (a polemic against the heathen gods); 6. Contra Symmachum, Liber 2 (a polemic against a petition of Sym machus for the restoration of the altar and statue of Victory cast down by Gratian); 7. Peri Stephanim _Gibe• (14 poems in praise of Spanish and other martyrs for the faith); 8. Diptychon (48 poems of four verses each, on Scriptural incidents and personages). Bentley calls Prudentius " the Horace and Virgil of the Christians," which may be true enough if the critic only meant to say that Prudeutins is the first of the early Christian verse-makers; but is ridiculous if he intended to hint at a comparison with these masters of poetic elegance and grace.