a presbyter of Lyons, who flourished towards the close of the fifth century, has been characterised by a French writer as at once the Maecenas and the Aristarchus of the literary men of that period, fostering them by his munificence and training them to excellence by his counsel. We find four letters addressed to him by his friend Sidonius Apollinaris, from the first of which we learn, that this collection of epistles was made at his suggestion and submitted to his criticism and correction.
Constantius, at the request of Patiens, bishop of Lyons, drew up a biography of Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, who died in A. D. 448. This work, entitled Vita S. Germani Episcopi Autissiodorensis, appears from the second dedication to have been completed about A. D. 488, and is contained in the compilations of Surius and of the Bollandists under the Saints of July. It was rendered into verse by Ericus, a Benedictine monk of Auxerre, who lived about A. D. 989, and translated into French by Arnauld d'Andilly.
Some persons have ascribed to Constantins the "Vita S. Justi Lugdunensis Episcopi," who died in A. D. 390, but there is no evidence that he was the author. This performance also will be found in Surius under September 2nd, and has been translated into French by Le Maitre de Sacy in his " Vies des Pères du Désert."
[W.R]