Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

PORFIRIUS, PUBLILIUS OPTATIANUS

Online Encyclopedia

Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 102 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.

Encyclopedia Home :: POL-PRE

Spread the word:

del.icio.us it!

See also:

PORFIRIUS, PUBLILIUS OPTATIANUS

PORFIRIUS, See also:
PUBLILIUS (less correctly PUBLIUS) SYRUS
PUBLILIUS OPTATIANUS , Latin poet, possibly a native of See also:

Africa, flourished during the 4th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century A.D. He has been identified with Pub]ilius Optatianus, who was prae fectus urbi (329 and 333), and is by some authorities included amongst the See also:

Christian poets. For some See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason he had been banished, but having addressed a See also:

PANEGYRIC

panegyric to the See also:

EMPEROR (Fr. empereur, from the Lat. imperator)

Emperor See also:

CONSTANTINE

Constantine the See also:

GREAT

Great, he was allowed to return. Twenty-eight poems are extant under his name, of which twenty were included in the panegyric. They have no value except as curiosities and specimens of perverted ingenuity. Some of them are squares (the number of letters in each See also:

LINE

line being equal), certain letters being rubricated so as to See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form a See also:

PATTERN

pattern or figure, and at the same See also:

time See also:

SPECIAL

special verses or See also:

MAXIMS, LEGAL

maxims; others represent various See also:

OBJECTS

objects (a See also:

SYRINX (ovpryE)

syrinx, an See also:

ORGAN

organ, an See also:

ALTAR (Lat. altare, from alias, high; some ancient etymological guesses are recorded by St Isidore of Seville in Etymologiae xv. 4)

altar); others have special peculiarities in each line (number of words or letters) ; while the 28th poem (the versus anacyclici) may be read back-wards without any effect upon sense or See also:

METRE ((terpuc?, sc. rFxvf, from Gr. Or poi', measure)

metre. A complimentary See also:

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

letter from the emperor and letter of thanks from the author are also extant. The best edition of the poem is by L. See also:

Muller (1877). See also O. Seeck, " Das Leben See also:

des Dichters Porphyrius " in Rheinisches Museum (1908), lxiii. 267.

End of Article: PORFIRIUS, PUBLILIUS OPTATIANUS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.

Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
PORE

[next]
PORISM