Ausonius (Decimus Magnus), ca. 310–ca. 395 CE, a doctor's son, was born at Burdigala (Bordeaux). After a good education in grammar and rhetoric and a short period during which he was an advocate, he took to teaching rhetoric in a school which he began in 334. Among his students was Paulinus, who was afterwards Bishop of Nola; and he seems to have become some sort of Christian himself. Thirty years later Ausonius was called by Emperor Valentinian to be tutor to Gratian, who subsequently as emperor conferred on him honours including a consulship in 379. In 383, after Gratian's murder, Ausonius retired to Bordeaux.
Ausonius's surviving works, some with deep feeling, some composed it seems for fun, some didactic, include much poetry: poems about himself and family, notably "The Daily Round"; epitaphs on heroes in the Trojan War, memorials on Roman emperors, and epigrams on various subjects; poems about famous cities and about friends and colleagues. "The Moselle," a description of that river, is among the most admired of his poems. There is also an address of thanks to Gratian for the consulship.
The Loeb Classical Library edition of Ausonius is in two volumes; the second includes Eucharisticus ("Thanksgiving") by Paulinus Pellaeus.
- introduction vii
- i. prefatory pieces 3
- ii. the daily round 13
- iii. personal poems 33
- iv. parentalia 57
- v. poems commemorating the professors of bordeaux 97
- vi. epitaphs on the heroes who took part in the trojan war 141
- vii. the eclogues 163
- viii. cupid crucified 207
- ix. bissula 217
- x. the moselle 225
- xi. the order of famous cities 269
- xii. the technopaegnion 287
- xiii. the masque of the seven sages 311
- xiv. on the twelve caesars whose lives were written by suetonius 331
- xv. conclusion of the book of annals 349
- xvi. a riddle of the number three 353
- xvii. a nuptial cento 371
- appendix 395
- Volume II LCL 115