Ausonius an Paulinus von Nola

Nils Rücker considers these letters to be literature: They may have been written in the form of personal letters, like the letter poems of Horace, but they were in fact meant to be enjoyed by a larger circle of readers.Around the year 390 AD the rhetor Ausonius wrote a number of poetical letters to his former pupil Paulinus, later the Bishop of Nola. At the center of these letter poems were his lamentations about his friend´s long silence and his decision to discard his life as a rich landowner to take up the role as of an ascetic Christian. Paulinus answers in two letter poems and defends his decisions. This correspondence is fascinating because of its existential content: A young man at the crossroads of his life rejects the advice of an elderly man and forsakes him.

Dr. Nils Rücker ist Mitarbeiter am Projekt zur Edition der römischen Tragikerfragmente an der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg.