Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Scholars have noted that Ausonius (ca. 310–395) plays with names in his poetry, but no one as yet has studied the poetic effects that Ausonius creates through naming. This article surveys several poems by Ausonius, showing how the poet crafts the nomen as a way to forge political alliances. The name’s political applications are shown to be an engagement with late antique onomastic practices. By attending to Ausonius’s use of names, we can interpret his Mosella as an allegory in which the poet provides advice to his student, Gratian, about how to relate to his brother, Valentinian II. This reading, which is corroborated by referring to Ausonius’s correspondence with Gratian, helps us to date the poem.
Source: Names
Author: A. W. Strouse
Institution: City University of New York
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Villanova University
OpenAlex ID: W2009929613