I.

Paschale Carmen s. Mirabilium Divinorum Libri V., in heroic measure; to which is prefixed in some MSS. a "Praefatio," in eight elegiac couplets, addressed to the reader, and a " Dedicatio ad Theodosium Augustum," in fifteen hexameters. If the inscription of the latter be genuine, it could not have been written after A. D. 450, for in that year the younger Theodosius died. There is also an introductory epistle addressed to the Abbot Macedonius, at whose request Sedulius had executed a prose version of the above poem. This prose version has been preserved and was published at Paris in 1585 by F. Juret, from a MS. the property of P. Pithou. Sigebertus (l.c.) maintains that the work was first composed in prose and afterwards versified. But this account is directly at variance with the words of the letter. There is some doubt as to the number of books into which the ought to be divided. Although the MSS. vary, all the best distribute it into five : the Anonymus Mellicensis (l.c.) states that it consists of two; Isidorus and Honorius (ll. cc.) agree that there are three, one being devoted to the signs and wonders commemorated in the Old Testament, two to the Sacraments and Miracles of Christ. Trithemius (l.c.) expressly names four, and this seems to have been the arrangement contemplated by the author, who thus (Epist. ad Maced.) explains the nature, object, and extent of his undertaking : " Quatuor mirabilium divinorum libellos, quos, et pluribus pauca complexus, usque ad Passionem et Resurrectionem Ascensionemque Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, quatuor Evangelistarum dicta congregans, ordinavi, contra omnes aemulos tuae defensioni commendo. Huic autem operi, favente Deo, Paschalis Carminis nomen imposui quia Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus." The most easy solution of the difficulty is to be found in the supposition which assigns the disposition of the parts, as they are now exhibited, to the first editor Asterius, who would probably give that form to the scattered papers of the deceased which to him appeared most appropriate, while transcribers, following their own judgment, may have thought fit to introduce changes, and thus have caused the discrepancies and contradictions which we meet with in the historians of ecclesiastical literature. It is not improbable that Sedulius may, at one time, have intended the Miracles of the Old Testament to constitute a separate work, and it may even be urged that the words quoted above apply to the New Testament exclusively.

II.

, a sort of hymn containing a collection of texts from the Old and New Testaments, arranged in such a manner as to enable the reader to compare the two dispensations. The metre employed is the elegiac distich and the expressions are arranged with laborious ingenuity in such a way that the first penthemimer of the hexameter, in each couplet, recurs as the last penthemimer of the pentameter : thus

Primus ad ima ruit de luce superbus ; Sic homo cum tumuit primus ad ima ruit ;

a device to which grammarians have given the name of ἐπανάληψ́ιρ.

III.

, a succinct account of the life and miracles of Christ, from the Incarnation to the Ascension, in Iambic dimeters. The first line begins with the letter A, the fifth line with the letter B, the ninth with C, the thirteenth with D, and so on at intervals of four lines until a complete alphabet has been finished, the whole being wound up by a sort of epilogue in two elegiac distichs.

IV.

, a Cento Virgilianus, first published in the collection of Martene and Durand front a MS. belonging to the monastery of Corvey on the Weser.

V. Doubtful Epigram

The authenticity of the epigram entitled " De tabula orbis terrarum jussu Theodosii Junioris Imperatoris facta" is more than doubtful. It is to be found in Burmann's Anthologia Latina, 5.115, or No. 274, ed. Meyer; comp. Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. iv. p. 499.