Ausonius (Decimus Magnus Ausonius) [key], c.310–c.395, Latin poet and man of letters, b. Bordeaux. He tutored Gratian, who, when he ascended the throne, made Ausonius prefect of Gaul, and finally consul (379). When Gratian died, Ausonius returned to Bordeaux. His work gives a detailed picture of contemporary people and places. Mosella, a description of his journey on the Moselle River, contains his best verse. Among his other works are Parentalia, verse sketches of dead relatives, and Ordo nobilium urbium, a description of 20 leading cities of the Roman world. Ausonius was nominally a Christian, although his works reveal many pagan beliefs.
See H. G. Evelyn-White's Loeb ed. (1968–85); R. P. H. Green, The Works Of Ausonius (1991).
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