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TOLEDO (Town) CASTILLE-LA MANCHA
Eugenius, who was bishop of Toledo from A. D. 646 to 657, is mentioned under Dracontius
as the editor and enlarger of the work by Dracontius upon the Creation. He is
known also as the author of thirty-two short original poems composed on a great
variety of subjects, chiefly however moral and religious, in heroic, elegiac,
trochaic, and sapphic measures. These were publisted by Sirmond at Paris, 1619,
will be found also in the collected works of Sirmond (Paris 1696 and Venice 1728),
in the Bibl. Patr. Max. Lugdun. 1677, and in the edition of Dracontius by Rivinus,
Lips. 1651. Two Epigrams by Eugenius -one on the invention of letters, the other
on the names of hybrid animals. are contained in the Anthologia Latina of Burmann.
Dracontius, a Christian poet, of whose personal history we know nothing, except
that he was a Spanish presbyter, flourished during the first half of the fifth
century, and died about A. D. 450. His chief production, entitled Hexaemeron,
in heroic measure, extending to 575 lines, contains a description of the six days
of the creation, in addition to which we possess a fragment in 198 elegiac verses
addressed to the younger Theodosius, in which the author implores forgiveness
of God for certain errors in his greater work, and excuses himself to the emperor
for having neglected to celebrate his victories. Although the Hexaemeron is by
no means destitute of spirit, and plainly indicates that the writer had studied
carefully the models of classical antiquity, we can by no means adopt the criticism
of Isidorus: "Dracontius composnit heroicis versibus Hexaemeron creations mundi
et luculenter, quod composuit, scripsit", if we are to understand that any degree
of clearness or perspicuity is implied by the word luculenter, for nothing is
more characteristic of this piece than obscurity of thought and perplexity of
expression. Indeed these defects are sometimes pushed to such extravagant excess,
that we feel disposed to agree with Barthius (Advers. xxiii. 19), that Dracontius
did not always understand himself.
It is to be observed that the Hexaemeron exists under two forms. It was published
in its original shape along with the Genesis of Claudius Marius Victor, at Paris,
1560; in the "Corpus Christianorum Poetarum," edited by G. Fabricius, Basil. 1564;
with the notes of Weitzius, Franc 1610; in the "Magna Bibliotheca Patrum," Colon.
1618; and in the "Bibliotheca Patrum", Paris, 1624.
In the course of the seventh century, however, Eugenius, bishop of
Toledo, by the orders of king Chindasuindus, undertook to revise, correct, and
improve the Six Days; and, not content with repairing and beautifying the old
structure, supplied what he considered a defect in the plan by adding an account
of the Seventh Day. In this manner the performance was extended to 634 lines.
The enlarged edition was first published by Sirmond along with the Opuscula of
Eugenius, Paris, 1619. In the second volume of Sirmond's works (Ven. 1728), we
read the letter of Eugenius to Chindasuindus, from which we learn that the prelate
engaged in the task by the commands of that prince; and we find the Elegy addressed
to Theodosius. The Eugenian version was reprinted by Rivinus, Lips. 1651, and
in the "Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum", Lugdun. More recent editions have appeared
by F. Arevalus, Rom. 1791, and by J. B. Carpzovius, Helmst. 1794.
The Dracontius mentioned above must not be confounded with the Dracontius
to whom Athanasius addressed an epistle; nor with the Dracontius on whom Palladius
bestowed the epithets of endoxos and Daumastos; nor with the Dracontius, bishop
of Pergamus, named by Socrates and Sozomenus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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