View source for Merobaudes (poet)

{{short description|Poet}}
'''Flavius Merobaudes''' was a 5th-century [[Latin language|Latin]] rhetorician and [[poet]].

Merobaudes was a Roman of [[Franks|Frankish]] origin who was raised in Spain, and likely was a descendant of the [[Merobaudes (magister peditum)|famous general of the same name]] who flourished during the fourth century.<ref>Bachrach, Bernard S. (University of Minnesota. Center for Early Modern History). ''City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective''. Cambridge University Press (2000), p. 196 [https://books.google.com/books?id=S7dUv-1Ql2oC&pg=PA196].</ref>

He was the official laureate of [[Valentinian III]] and [[Flavius Aetius|Aetius]]. Until the beginning of the 19th century he was known only from the notice of him in the ''Chronicle'' (year 443) of his contemporary [[Hydatius]], where he is praised as a poet and orator, and mention is made of statues set up in his honour.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He was part of [[Aetius campaign in the Alps|Aetius army that campaigned in the Alps]].

In 1813 the base of a statue was discovered at [[Rome]], with a long inscription belonging to the year 435 ([[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]] vi. 1724) upon Flavius Merobaudes, celebrating his merits as warrior and poet. Ten years later, [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr|B. G. Niebuhr]] discovered some Latin verses on a [[palimpsest]] in the [[monastery of St Gall]], the authorship of which was traced to Merobaudes, owing to the great similarity of the language in the prose preface to that of the inscription.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Formerly the only piece known under the name of Merobaudes was a short poem (30 [[hexameter]]s) ''De Christo'', attributed to him by one manuscript, to [[Claudian]] by another; but [[Friedrich Adolf Ebert|Ebert]] is inclined to dispute the claim of Merobaudes to be considered either the author of the ''De Christo'' or a Christian.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

The Panegyric and minor poems have been edited by Niebuhr (1824); by [[Immanuel Bekker]] in the Bonn Corpus scriptorum hist. (1836); the ''De Christo'' in T. Birt's ''Claudian'' (1892), where the authorship of Merobaudes is upheld;{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} most recently F. Bücheler and A. Riese, ''Anthologia latina sive poesis latinae supplementum'' (2nd ed. of vol. 1, Leipzig, 1894–1926) 1, 2: pp.&nbsp;327–328, no. 878. See also A. Ebert, ''Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande'' (1889). English translation by F.M. Clover, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1006125 "Flavius Merobaudes: A Translation and Historical Commentary", ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society''], New Series, Vol. 61, No. 1 (January, 1971), pp.&nbsp;1–78

==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Merobaudes, Flavius|volume=18|page=172}}

==External links==
*{{in lang|la}} [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_10_0400-0500-_Merobaudus_Flavius.html Merobaudus Flavius: ''Carminum Panegirique Relequiae''] in ''[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu Documenta Catholica Omnia]''

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[[Category:5th-century births]]
[[Category:5th-century Frankish people]]
[[Category:5th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:5th-century Roman poets]]
[[Category:Late-Roman-era pagans]]
[[Category:Romans from Hispania]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]