Alcimus Alethius

Alcimus (Avitus) Alethius (fl. c. 354 AD) was the writer of seven short poems in the Latin Anthology. Classical scholar J. C. Wernsdorf believed him to be the same person as Alcimus, the rhetorician in Aquitania, in Gaul, who is spoken of in terms of high praise by Sidonius Apollinaris and Ausonius. It is possible however that Apollinaris was referring to his contemporary, Avitus of Vienne, also known as Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus.

The date of this Alcimus is determined by Jerome in his Chronicon, who says that Alcimus and Delphidius taught in Aquitania in 360 AD.

Quotes

• De numero uatum si quis seponat Homerum,
    proximus a primo tunc Maro primus erit.
  at si post primum Maro seponatur Homerum,
    longe erit a primo, quisque secundus erit.
  • ???
  • A.L. 740. De Vergilio ('Of Virgil')

• Maeonio uati qui par aut proximus esset,
    consultus Paean risit et haec cecinit;
  si potuit nasci, quem tu sequereris, Homere,
    nascetur, qui te possit, Homere, sequi.
  • ???
  • A.L. 713. De Vergilio et Homero ('Of Virgil and Homer')

• Lux mea puniceum misit mihi Lesbia malum:
    iam sordent animo cetera poma meo.
  sordent uelleribus uestita cydonia canis,
    sordent hirsutae munera castaneae;
  nolo nuces, Amarylli, tuas nec cerea pruna:
    rusticus haec Corydon munera magna putet.
  horreo sanguineo male mora rubentia suco:
    heu graue funesti crimen amoris habent!
  missa et dente leui paulo libata placenta:
    nectarea e labris dulcia liba suis:
  nescio quid plus melle sapit, quod contigit ipsa
    spirans Cecropium dulcis ab ore thymum.
  • ???
  • A.L. 715

• O blandos oculos et o facetos
  et quadam propria nota loquacis!
  illic et Venus et leues Amores
  atque ipsa in medio sedet Voluptas.
  • ???
  • A.L. 714
  • Compare:
    O blandos oculos et inquietos
    et quadam propria nota loquaces!
    illic et Venus et leves Amores
    atque ipsa in medio sedet Voluptas.
    O lovely restless eyes, that speak
      In language's despite!
    For there sits Beauty, and the little Loves:
      Between them dwells Delight.
    —Helen Waddell, Mediaeval Latin Lyrics (1929), p. 23
    O sweet and pretty speaking eyes,
    Where Venus, love, and pleasure lies.
    —Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1638)
    Bright star of beauty, on whose eyelids sit
    A thousand nymph-like and enamour'd Graces,
    The Goddesses of Memory and Wit,
    Which there in order take their several places.
    —Michael Drayton, Idea (1619), IV

About

• Nec me nepotes impii silentii
    reum ciebunt, Alcime,
  minusque dignum, non et oblitum ferent
    tuae ministrum memoriae,
  opponit unum quem viris prioribus
    aetas recentis temporis.
  palmae forensis et camenarum decus,
    exemplar unum in litteris,
  quas aut Athenis docta coluit Graecia,
    aut Roma per Latium colit.
  moresne fabor et tenorem regulae
    ad usque vitae terminum?
  quod laude clarus, quod operatus litteris
    omnem refugisti ambitum?
  te nemo gravior vel fuit comis magis
    aut liberalis indigis,
  danda salute, si forum res posceret;
    studio docendi, si scholam.
  vivent per omnem posterorum memoriam,
    quos tu sacrae famae dabas
  et Iulianum tu magis famae dabis
    quam sceptra, quae tenuit brevi.
  Sallustio plus conferent libri tui,
    quam consulatus addidit.
  morum tuorum, decoris et facundiae
    formam dedisti filiis.
  Ignosce nostri laesus obsequio stili:
    amoris hoc crimen tui est,
  quod digna nequiens promere officium colo,
    iniuriose sedulus.
  quiesce placidus et caduci corporis
    damnum repende gloria.
  • Nor shall Posterity arraign me on the charge of unduteous silence touching you, Alcimus, and say I was too unworthy and unheedful to be entrusted with the memory of one whom our later age matches alone with the men of olden time. In legal eloquence you were supreme, you were the Muses' pride, and our one model in those letters which learned Greece fostered at Athens, or which Rome fosters throughout the Latin world. Shall I speak of your character and of the rule of life maintained to your life's end? Or of the brilliance of your renown, and the devotion to learning which made you wholly shun ambition? No man was more dignified than you, yet none was more agreeable or more generous to the needy in undertaking the defence if legal aid was needed, or in zealously teaching some pupil in the schools. Those upon whom you bestowed glorious renown will live in the memory of all succeeding ages, and your works will bestow upon Julian greater renown than will the sceptre which he held so short a time. Your histories will throw more lustre on Sallust's1 name than he ever gained through his consulship. So in your virtues, graces, and eloquence you have set a pattern to your sons.
    If my pen, seeking to please, only offends, yet pardon me: 'tis the love I bear you is guilty, if, though I cannot voice aught worthy, I seek to pay my homage, harmfully zealous. Calm be your rest, and with renown outweigh the frail body's loss.
  • Ausonius, Professores, II (tr. H. G. Evelyn-White)

External links

• Alexander Riese, ed. Anthologia Latina, Vol. 1 (1869), nos. 740, 713, 715, 714

• H. W. Garrod, ed. The Oxford Book of Latin Verse (Oxford, 1912), nos. 322–4

• H. G. Evelyn-White, ed. Ausonius, Vol. 1 (LCL, 1919), p. 100