Ausonius - Some Characteristics of His Works

Some Characteristics of His Works

Although admired by his contemporaries, the writings of Ausonius have not since been ranked among Latin literature's finest. His style is easy and fluent, and his Mosella is appreciated for its evocation of the life and country along the River Moselle; but he is considered derivative and unoriginal. Edward Gibbon pronounced in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that "the poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste of his age." However, his works have several points of interest:

1. He is frequently cited by historians of winemaking, as his works give early evidence of large-scale viniculture in the now-famous wine country around his native Bordeaux.

2. His contribution to the carpe diem topic is also widely known:

Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus et nova pubes et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum. —Epigrammata: «Rosae» 2:49 Gather, girl, roses while the flower is fresh and fresh is youth, remembering that your own time is hurrying on.

3. A curious poem is his Cento Nuptialis (translated as A Nuptial Cento by H.G. Evelyn-White for Loeb Classical Library), in which he extracts phrases from Virgil and re-applies them to a nuptial consummation:

Itque reditque viam totiens | uteroque recusso

transadigit costas | et pectine pulsat eburno.

Iamque fere spatio extremo fessique sub ipsam

finem adventabant: | tum creber anhelitus artus

aridaque ora quatit, sudor fluit undique rivis,

labitur exsanguis, | destillat ab inguine virus.

Back and forth he plies his path and, the cavity reverberating,

thrusts between the bones, and strikes with ivory quill.

And now, their journey covered, wearily they neared

their very goal: then rapid breathing shakes his limbs

and parched mouth, his sweat in rivers flows;

down he slumps bloodless; the fluid drips from his groin.