PUBLILIUS OPTATIANUS

See also:

• PUBLILIUS OPTATIANUS PORFIRIUS

PORFIRIUS  , Latin poet, possibly a native of Africa, flourished during the 4th 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 Christian poets . For some reason he had been banished, but having addressed a panegyric to the Emperor Constantine the 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 line being equal), certain letters being rubricated so as to form a pattern or figure, and at the same time special verses or maxims; others represent various objects (a syrinx, an organ, an 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 metre . A complimentary letter from the emperor and letter of thanks from the author are also extant . The best edition of the poem is by L . Muller (1877) . See also O . Seeck, " Das Leben des Dichters Porphyrius " in Rheinisches Museum (1908), lxiii . 267 .