Vol. 62 No. 4 (2014)
Research Article

In te consumere nomen: The Politics of Naming in Ausonius’s Mosella

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  • A. W. Strouse
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0027773814Z.00000000084

Published 2014-12-01

Copyright (c) 2014 Maney Publishing

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

Scholars have noted that Ausonius (ca. 310–395) plays with names in his poetry, but no one as yet has studied the poetic effects that Ausonius creates through naming. This article surveys several poems by Ausonius, showing how the poet crafts the nomen as a way to forge political alliances. The name’s political applications are shown to be an engagement with late antique onomastic practices. By attending to Ausonius’s use of names, we can interpret his Mosella as an allegory in which the poet provides advice to his student, Gratian, about how to relate to his brother, Valentinian II. This reading, which is corroborated by referring to Ausonius’s correspondence with Gratian, helps us to date the poem.

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