A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

or PETRICO'RDIUS (PAULINUS). Among the various Paulini who flourished in the Western Empire in the fifth century, was Paulinus, called in the MSS. Petricordius, which modern critics correct to Petrocorius. and suppose to be given him from the place of his birth, inferred to be Petrocorii, the modern Perigueux. Some moderns have erroneously given to him the praenomen Benedictus; an error which has arisen from their having regarded as a name the epithet "benedictus," "blessed," given to him by some who have confounded him with his more celebrated namesake, Paulinus of Nola [PAULIXNS. p. 144]. Sidonius Apollinaris (Epistol. 8.11) mentions a Paulinus, an eminent rhetorician of Perigueux, whom Sirmond supposed to be the subject of the present article, but whom the authors of the Histoire Littéraire de la France consider, but with little reason, to be his father. Our Paulinus was intimate with Perpetuus, who was bishop of Tours from A. D. 461 to 491, and whom he calls his patron. It was at the desire of Perpetuus that he put into verse the life of St. Martin of Tours; and in an epistle addressed to that prelate, he humbly tells him, with an amusing reference to the history of Balaam, that, in giving him confidence to speak, he had repeated the miracle of opening the mouth of the ass. He afterwards supplied, at the desire of the bishop, some verses to be inscribed on the walls of the new church which Perpetuus finished about A. D. 473 (or according to Oudin, A. D. 482), and to which the body of St. Martin was transferred. He sent with them some verses De Visitatione Nepotuli sui, on occasion of the cure, supposed to be miraculous, which his grandson and the young lady to whom he was married or betrothed, had experienced through the efficacy of a document, apparently the account of the miracles of St. Martin, written by the hand of the bishop. We gather that this poem was written when the author was old, from the circumstance of his having a grandson of marriageable age. Of the death of Paulinus we have no account.

[J.C.M]