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POETRY
In the words of a perceptive French scholar, ' C'est un Chretien, pai'en d'imagination
et epicureen de temperament.' 1 Ausonius' changing relations with
his young friend and protege Paulinus of Nola will be discussed below
(p. 717). Whatever lessons Ausonius the man may have learnt in the long and
varied course of his life, Ausonius the poet shows no signs of intellectual, moral
or aesthetic development. A prodigious memory, a facile talent for versification,
a cheerful and kindly optimism, and an avoidance of all that was serious
or profound or disquieting mark him throughout his literary life. In a century
which saw the frontiers of the empire breached by barbarians, its ruling classes
converted to a new religion which made urgent personal demands on its
adherents, its ancient capital replicated in the middle of the Greek world, Ausonius
appears to have retained at 80 the outlook and values of his youth. He is a
man who, in the words of Diirrenmatt, passes through life without actually
experiencing it. But within his rather narrow limits his excellence is striking.
He can express everyday thoughts and emotions clearly, elegantly and with
infinite variety. Completely at home in the classical tradition, he is never
overwhelmed by it. Though his poetry is filled with conscious or unconscious
reminiscences of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, it is his own poetic
voice that we hear. In a few poems, particularly those on Bissula and the
Mosella, he displays a talent for sympathetic observation and strikingly vivid
description which suggest that had he looked less at his books and more at
the world about him he might have been a better poet. An example of his
occasional capacity to see and describe something new is the scene of boys
fishing in the river (Mosella 240—82) where the classical allusions and the
traditionally structured simile are not mere external ornamentation, but serve
to give sharper focus to the poet's vision.
lam uero, accessus faciles qua ripa ministrat, 240
scrutatur toto populatrix turba profundo
heu male defensos penetrali flumine pisces.
hie medio procul amne trahens umentia Una
nodosis decepta plagis examina uerrit;
ast hie, tranquillo qua labitur agmine flumen,
ducit corticeis fluitantia retia signis;
ille autem scopulis deiectas pronus in undas
inclinat lentae conuexa cacumina uirgae,
inductos escis iadens letalibus hamos.
quos ignara doli postquam uaga turba natantum 250
rictibus inuasit patulaeque per intima fauces
sera occultati senserunt uulnera ferri,
dum trepidant, subit indicium crispoque tremori
uibrantis saetae mutans consentit harundo;
1
Pichon (1906) 214.
701
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008