Gaius Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus (fl. c. 330) was a Roman

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

poet from

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

who wrote in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Life

The only source on Juvencus's life is

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

. De viris, chapter 84; Chron., ad an. 2345; Epist. lxx, 5; In Matt., I, ii, 11. He was a Spaniard of very good birth, became a priest, and wrote in the time of

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

. From one passage in his work (II, 806, sq.) and from Jerome's Chronicle it must be inferred that he wrote about the year 330.

Works

His poem, in

dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry. Its name is derived from Greek (, "finger") and (, "six"). Dactylic hexameter consists o ...

s, is entitled ''Evangeliorum libri IV'' (The Four Books of the Gospels). It is a history of Christ according to the Gospels, particularly that of Matthew. He goes to the other Evangelists for what he does not find in Matthew — as the story of the Infancy of Christ, which he takes from Luke. He follows his model very closely, "almost literally", as St. Jerome says. The whole problem for him is to render the Gospel text into easy language conformable to the tradition of the Latin poets, and borrowed especially from

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

. His task permits of little originality beyond that exhibited in new words composed, or derived, according to familiar types (''auricolor'', ''flammiuomus'', ''flammicomans'', ''sinuamen''), elegant synonyms to express the Christian realities (''tonans'' for "God", ''genitor'' for the Father, ''spiramen'' for the Holy Ghost, ''uersutia'' for the Devil), or, lastly, archaic expressions. The language is correct and the verses well constructed, but there is little colour or movement. A few obscurities of Prosody betray the period in which the work was written. The whole effect is carefully wrought out. In the

prologue A prologue or prolog (from Ancient Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier st ...

, Juvencus announces that he wishes to meet the lying tales of the pagan poets,

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and Virgil, with the glories of the true Faith. He hopes that his poem will survive the destruction of the world by fire, and will deliver him, the poet, from hell. He invokes the Holy Spirit as the pagans invoked the Muses or

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

. The work is divided into four books, which make arbitrary divisions of the life of

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

. The number four seems to be symbolical, corresponding to the number of the Evangelists. Other traces of symbolism have been found in Juvencus, the most notable being the significance attached to the gifts of the Magi — the incense offered to the God, the gold to the King, the myrrh to the Man. Lastly, eight preliminary verses, Juvencus's authorship of which is disputed, characterize the Evangelists and assign emblems to them; but they assign the eagle to Mark and the lion to John. The Bible text which Juvencus paraphrased was of course an ancient one. He appears, too, to have had recourse at times to the Greek text. The source of his poetical phraseology and his technic is, first, Virgil, then

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...

Propertius Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium (now Assisi) and died shortly after 15 BC. Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of '' Elegies'' ('). He was a friend of the ...

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

Silius Italicus Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (, c. 26 – c. 101 AD) was a Roman senator, orator and epic poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature. His only surviving work is the 17-book '' Punica'', an epic poem about the Second Punic War and the ...

, and

Statius Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Theb ...

. The cold correctness of the work recommended it to the taste of the Middle Ages, when it was frequently quoted, imitated, and copied. Jerome mentions that Juvencus composed another, shorter, Christian poem on "the order of the mysteries" (''Sacramentorum ordinem''). This work is lost. Modern writers have incorrectly attributed to him the ''Heptateuchus'', a work of

Cyprianus Gallus Cyprianus Gallus or Cyprian the Gaul (fl. c. 397–430) is the conventional name of the poet who wrote a Late Latin epic versification of the historical books of the Old Testament based on the Old Latin translation, although only his version ...

, and the ''De Laudibus Domini'', a work of Juvencus's time, but to be credited to some pupil of the rhetoricians of Augustodunum (Autun).

Editions and translations

*Reginald Oliver published an edition of ''Historia Evangelica'' in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

in 1534. * C. Marold (Leipzig, 1886) in the "Bibliotheca Teubneriana" * J. Hümer (Vienna, 1891) in the "Corpus script. ecclesiast. latinorum" *

Notes

References

* This work in turn cites: ** W. S. Teuffel, ''Geschichte der römischen Literatur'' (Leipzig, 1890), 1016 ** Martin Schanz, ''Geschichte der röm. Literatur'', IV (Munich, 1904), 1, 190 ** Otto Bardenhewer, tr. Thomas J Shanan, ''Patrology'' (St. Louis, 1908) * Cornel Heinsdorff, ''Christus, Nikodemus und die Samaritanerin bei Juvencus. Mit einem Anhang zur lateinischen Evangelienvorlage'', Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 67 (Berlin/New York 2003) . * Cornel Heinsdorff, ''Der interpolierte Juvencus des Codex Augiensis 112 und Severus von Malaga'', Vigiliae Christianae 60 (2006), 148–170. * R. P.H. Green, "The Evangeliorum Libri of Juvencus: Exegesis by Stealth," in ''Poetry and Exegesis in Premodern Latin Christianity: The Encounter between Classical and Christian Strategies of Interpretation''. Eds. Willemien Otten and Karla Pollmann (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007) (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 87), * Roger P H Green, ''Latin Epics of the New Testament: Juvencus, Sedulius, Arator'', Oxford UP 2008 (reviewed by Teresa Morgan in the article "Poets for Jesus", ''Times Literary Supplement'', 4 April 2008, p 31).

External links

*
Opera Omnia
by Migne Patrologia Latina * translation by Patrick McBrine

at ''Bibliotheca Augustana'' {{Authority control 4th-century Roman poets 4th-century Christians 4th-century Christian clergy 4th-century Romans Christian poets 4th-century writers in Latin Romans from Hispania Italian Roman Catholic priests Vettii