It became a common practice, in the times of Diocletian and his immediate successors, for provincial states, especially the cities of Gaul, at that period peculiarly celebrated as the nursing-mother of orators, to despatch deputations from time to time to the imperial court, for the purpose of presenting congratulatory addresses upon the occurrence of any auspicious event, of returning thanks for past benefits, and of soliciting a renewal or continuance of favour and protection. The individual in each community most renowned for his rhetorical skill would naturally be chosen to draw up and deliver the complimentary harangue, which was usually recited in the presence of the prince himself. Eleven pieces of this description have been transmitted to us, which have been generally published together, under the title of Duodecim Panegyrici veteres, the speech of Pliny in honour of Trajan being included to round off the number, although belonging to a different age, and possessing very superior claims upon our notice, while some editors have added also the poem of Corippus in praise of the younger Justin. [CORIPPUS.] Of the eleven which may with propriety be classed together, the first bears the name of Claudius Mamertinus, who was probably the composer of the second also [MAMERTINUS]; the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh are all ascribed to Eumenius, with what justice is discussed elsewhere [EUMENIUS] ; the ninth is the work of Nazarius, who appears to have written the eighth likewise; the tenth belongs to a Mamertinus different from the personage mentioned above; the eleventh is the production of Drepanius, but the author of the fifth, in honour of the nuptials of Constantine with Fausta, the daughter of Maximianus (A. D. 307), is altogether unknown.
Discourses of this description must for the most part be as devoid of all sincerity and truth as they are, from their very nature, destitute of all genuine feeling or passion, and hence, at best, resolve themselves into a mere cold display of artistic dexterity, where the attention of the audience is kept alive by a succession of epigrammatic points, carefully balanced antitheses, elaborate metaphors, and welltuned cadences, where the manner is everything, the matter nothing. To look to such sources for historical information is obviously absurd. Success would in every case be grossly exaggerated, defeat carefully concealed, or interpreted to mean victory. The friends and allies of the sovereign would be daubed with fulsome praise, his enemies overwhelmed by a load of the foulest calumnies We cannot learn what the course of events really was, but merely under what aspect the ruling powers desired that those events should be viewed, and frequently the misrepresentations are so flagrant that we are unable to detect even a vestige of truth lurking below. We derive from these effusions some knowledge with regard to the personal history
LATINUSPACATUSDREPANIUS was a native of Aquitania, as we learn from himself and from Sidonius, the friend of Ausonius, who inscribes to him several pieces in very complimentary dedications, and the correspondent of Symmachus, by whom he is addressed in three epistles still extant.
[W.R]