Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/462

Rh 444 AUSONIUS. tion. In what has been said above we have fol- lowed the accounts of Aurelius Victor and Zonaras in preference to that of Pollio, who places the usurpation of Aureolus early in 261 ; but on t^^is supposition the relations which are known to have subsisted afterwards between GaUienus and Au- reolus become quite unintelligible. [W. R.J AU'RIA. [AuRius, No. 4.] AU'RIUS, the name of a family at Larinum, frequently mentioned in Cicero's oration for Clu- entius. 1. M. AuRius, the son of Dinaea, was taken prisoner at Asculum in the Italian war. He fell into the hands of Q. Sergius, who confined him in his ergastulum, where he was murdered by an emissary of Oppianicus, his brother-in-law. (cc. 7, 8.) 2. Num. Aurius, also the son of Dinaea, died before his brother, M. Aurius. (c. 7.) 3. A. Aurius Melinus, a relation of the two preceding, threatened to prosecute Oppianicus, on account of the murder of M. Aurius. Oppianicus thereupon fled from Larinum, but was restored by Sulla, and obtained the proscription and death of M. Aurius Melinus and his son, Caius. (c. 8.) Melinus had married Cluentia, the daughter of Sassia ; but as his mother-in-law fell in love with him, he divorced Cluentia and married Sassia. .'cc. 5, 9, 26.) 4. AuRiA, the wife of the brother of Oppianicus, was killed by the latter, (c. 11.) AURORA. [Eos.] AURUNCULEIA GENS, plebeian, of which CoTTA is the only family-name mentioned : for those who have no cognomen, see Aurunculeius. None of the members of this gens ever obtained the consulship : the first who obtained the praetor- ship was C. Aurunculeius, in B. c. 209. AURUNCULEIUS. 1. C. Aurunculeius, praetor R c. 209, had the province of Sardinia. (Liv. xxvii. 6, 7.) 2. C. Aurunculeius, tribune of the soldiers of the third legion in b. c. 207. (Liv. xxvii. 41.) ',i. L. Aurunculeius, praetor urbanusB. c. 190. He was one of the ten commissioners sent to ar- range the affairs of Asia at the conclusion of the war with Antiochus the Great, b. c. 188. (Liv. xxxvi. 45, xxxvii. 2, 53.) 4. C. Aurunculeius, one of the three Roman ambassadors sent into Asia, b. c. 155, to prevent Prusias from making war upon Attains. (Polyb. xxxiii. 1.) AURUNCUS, POST. COMI'NIUS, consul B. c. 501, in which year a dictator was first ap- pointed on account of the conspiracy of the Latin states against Rome. (Liv. ii. 18; Dionys. v. 50 ; Zonar. vii. 13.) According to some accounts, he is said to have dedicated the temple of Saturn, in 497, in accordance with a decree of the senate. (Dionys. vi. 1.) Auruncus was consul again, in 493, and entered upon his office during the secession of the plebs, who had occupied the Aventine. He carried on war successfully against the Volscians, and took several of their towns. It was during this cam- paign that C. Marcius first distinguished himself at Corioli, whence he obtained the surname of Co- riolanus. (Liv. ii. 33; Dionys. vi. 49, 91, 94 ; Cic. de Rep. ii. 33, pro Balb. 23; Plut. Conol. 8.) It was probably on account of Coriolanus having served under him that Auruncus is represented as one of the ambassadors sent to Coriolanus when the lat- ter was marching against Rome. (Dionys. viii. 22.) AUSONIUS. AUSON {ki<rwv), a son of Odysseus either by Calypso or Circe. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 44, 6^Q ; Schol. ad Apollon. iv. 553 ; Serv. ad ^en. iii. 171; Suidas, s. v. Ada-ovlcou.) The country of the Au- runcans was believed to have derived from him the name of Ausonia. Dionysius (i. 72), in enu- merating the sons of Odysseus by Circe, does not mention Auson. Liparus, from whom the name of the island of Lipara was derived, is called a son of Auson. (Steph. Bvz. a v. Anrdpa.) [L. S.] AUSO'NIUS, 'who in the oldest MSS. is en- titled Decimus Magnus Ausonius, although the first two names are found neither in his own poems, nor in the epistle addressed to him by Symmachus, nor in the works of any ancient author, was born at Bourdeaux in the early part of the fourth cen- tury. His father, Julius Ausonius, who followed the profession of medicine, appears to have been a person of high consideration, since he was at one period invested with the honorary title of praefect of Illyricum ; but there is no ground for the asser- tion of Scaliger, frequently repeated even in the most recent works, that he acted as physician in ordinary to the emperor Valentinian. If we can trust the picture of the parent drawn by the hand of the son, he must have been a very wonder of genius, wisdom, and virtue. {Idyll, ii. passim ; Parental, i. 9, &c.) The maternal grandfather of our poet, Caecilius Argicius Arborius, being skilled in judicial astrology, erected a scheme of the nati- vity of young Ausonius, and the horoscope was found to promise high fame and advancement. (Parental, iv. 17, &c.) The prediction was, in all probability, in some degree the cause of its own accomplishment. The whole of his kindred took a deep interest in the boy whose career was to prove so brilliant. His infant years were sedu- lously watched by his grandmother, Aemilia Co- rinthia Maura, wife to Caecilius Arborius, and by his maternal aunts, Aemilia Hilaria and Aemilia Dryadia, the former of whom was a holy woman, devoted to God and chastity. {Parental, vi. and XXV.) He received the first rudiments of the Greek and Latin languages from the most distinguished masters of his native town, and his education wag completed under the superintendence of Aemilius Magnus Arborius, his mother's brother, who taught rhetoric publicly at Toulouse, and who is named as the author of an elegy still extant, Ad Nympham nimis cultam. {Profess, viii. 12, &c., x. 16, iii. 1, i. 11; Parental, iii. 12, &c. ; Wemsdorf, Poet. Lat. Minores^ vol. iii. p. 217.) Upon his return to Bourdeaux he practised for a while at the bar ; but at the age of thirty began to give instructions as a grammarian, and not long after was promoted to be professor of rhetoric. The duties of this office were discharged by him for many years, and with such high reputation that he was summoned to court in order that he might act as the tutor of Gratian, son of the emperor Valentinian. {Praef. ad Syagr. 15, &c.) Judging from the honours which were now rapidly showered down upon him, he must have acquitted himself in his important charge to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. He re- ceived the title of count {comes) and the post of quaestor from Valentinian, after whose death he was appointed by his pupil praefectus of Latiuni, of Libya, and of Gaul, and at length, in the year 379, was elevated to the consulship, thus verifying to the letter, as Bayle has observed, the apophthegm of Juvenal :