JUVENCUS, GAIUS VETTIUS AQUILINUS

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 613 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: JUN-KHA

JUVENCUS, GAIUS VETTIUS AQUILINUS , Christian poet, flourished during the reign of Constantine the

Great

GREAT

. Nothingis known of him except that he was a Spanish presbyter of distinguished family. About 330 he published his Libri evangeliorum IV., each book containing about 800 hexameters. The division into books is possibly a reminiscence of the number of the Gospels. The

work

WORK

itself, written with the idea of ousting the absurdities of

Pagan

PAGAN
PAGAN (Lat. paganus, of or belonging to a pagus, a canton, county
district
- DISTRICT
,
village
- VILLAGE
, commune)

mythology and replacing them by the truths of Christianity, may be called the first Christian epic. In the Praefatio the author expresses the

hope

HOPE, ANTHONY
HOPE, THOMAS (c. 1770-1831)

that the sacredness of his subject may procure him safety at the final conflagration of the world and admission into heaven. The whole is, in the main, a poetical version of the Gospel of

Matthew

, the other evangelists only being used for supplementary details. It is founded upon a pre-vulgate Latin translation, although there is evidence that juvencus also consulted the Greek. In spite of metrical irregularities, the language and style are simple and show good taste, being free from the artificiality of other Christian poets and

prose

PROSE

writers, and the author has made excellent use of Virgil (his

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

model) and other classical writers. Juvencus set the fashion of verse translations of the Bible, and the large number of MSS. of his poem mentioned in lists and still extant are sufficient evidence of its

great

GREAT

popularity. According to Jerome, he was also the author of some poems on the sacraments, but no trace of these has survived. The Latin Heptateuch, a hexameter version of the first seven books of the Old Testament, has been attributed to Juvencus amongst others; but it is now generally supposed to be the

work

WORK

of a certain Cyprianus, a Gaul who lived in the 6th century, possibly a bishop of Toulon, author of the Life of Caesarius, bishop of Arelate (Arles).
See M. Manitius, Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie (1891) ; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters, vol. i. (1889); editions of Juvencus by C. Marold (1886); J. I-Iumer in Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, vol.xxiv. (Vienna, 1891) ; J. T. Hatfield, A Study of Juvencus (189o), dealing with syntax, metre and language; editions of the Heptateuch by J. E. B. Mayor (1889; reviewed by W. Sanday in Classical Review, October 1889, and by J. T. Hatfield in American Journal of Philology, vol. xi., 189o), and R. Peiper, vol. xxiii. of the Vienna

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

above. -

End of Article: JUVENCUS, GAIUS VETTIUS AQUILINUS

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/JUN_KHA/JUVENCUS_GAIUS_VETTIUS_AQUILIN.html">
JUVENCUS, GAIUS VETTIUS AQUILINUS
</a>

(Previous)
JUVENAL (DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS) (c. 60-140)

(Next)
JUVENILE OFFENDERS

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email