Fabius Planciades Fulgentius

Very little is known about the life of Fulgentius other than the few references he makes to himself in his own works. His style of Latin, his knowledge of Greek, and his view on classical authors and cults suggests that he was probably educated in North Africa.^[1] Other references to African culture in his work support placing him in this region before the Muslim invasions of the 7th century. Moreover, his apparent knowledge of the Libyco-Berber language and script indicates that he was probably an ethnic African: he refers to the language in his On the Ages of the World and of Man as being part of his 'own' heritage.^[2] Traditionally, Fulgentius is thought to have had a professional career as a grammaticus or rhetor (teacher of rhetoric).^[3] However, this belief is based on small incidental clues Fulgentius leaves behind in work and has been contested by some scholars.^[4] It remains possible that he was an amateur writer: in his prologue to Book 1 of the Mythologies, Fulgentius mentions a wife, though it is unclear whether this is a genuine autobiographical detail or part of his fictional persona in the story.^[5]

Identity with Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe

There is a continuing debate as to whether or not Fabius Planciades Fulgentius, and a contemporary, Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (a Christian bishop) were the same person. The identification of the two Fulgentii was first made by medieval scholars and scribes as far back as the Carolingian period.^[6]

There is some overlap in the influences of the two authors (as could be expected from writers working in the same time period and location), such as a common interest in thinkers like Augustine of Hippo. However, the primary focus and concern of each writer seems to set them apart. For example, most of the works attributed to Fulgentius the bishop deal with his opposition to heretical factions such as Arianism, a topic for which Fabius Fulgentius seems to have no concern.^[7] Topics on which the bishop seemed to have been strongly opinionated (Arianism, free-will, etc.) are never discussed in the mythographer's work, even when a discussion of such things would seem to fit his discussion.^[8] From a linguistic standpoint, the mythographer's unique style and inclusion of otherwise unused words and idioms is not replicated in the work of the bishop, which suggests further a negative identification.^[9]

It has been suggested that Fabius Fulgentius, who is traditionally thought to have been writing in the late 5th and early 6th centuries may have borrowed a line from Corippus's Iohannis in his Mythologies, which indicates that he was writing after 550.^[10] This discovery has called into serious doubt the possibility of identifying the bishop as the mythographer, as Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe is known to have died in 533.

Although the identification debate has not yet been settled, the answer to the question of whether to ascribe the authorship of the works to a single person appears to depend on subjective interpretation of the available evidence: Critical analysis which compares the writing styles used in the written works and marginal biographical details.^[11] Conflating the authors of the works is a tradition that began centuries ago, but that idea most likely originated as the result of a Carolingian-era scribal error.^[12]

Discover more about Life related topics

Latin

Latin

Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition.

Greek language

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy, southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

North Africa

North Africa

North Africa, or Northern Africa, is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in the west, to Egypt's Suez Canal in the east.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic, is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. Aristotle defines rhetoric as "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion" and since mastery of the art was necessary for victory in a case at law, for passage of proposals in the assembly, or for fame as a speaker in civic ceremonies, he calls it "a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical branch of politics". Rhetoric typically provides heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. The five canons of rhetoric or phases of developing a persuasive speech were first codified in classical Rome: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

Fulgentius of Ruspe

Fulgentius of Ruspe

Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius, also known as Fulgentius of Ruspe was North African Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Ruspe, in modern-day Tunisia, during the 5th and 6th century. He has been canonized as a saint.

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.

Arianism

Arianism

Arianism is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before "time" by God the Father, therefore Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, and the difference that Arius believed the Son to be "God" only in name.

Corippus

Corippus

Flavius Cresconius Corippus was a late Berber-Roman epic poet of the 6th century, who flourished under East Roman Emperors Justinian I and Justin II. His major works are the epic poem Iohannis and the panegyric In laudem Iustini minoris. Corippus was probably the last important Latin author of Late Antiquity.

The four extant works attributed to Fulgentius include (listed in what is believed to be chronological order):

1. Mythologiae (Mythologies)
2. Expositio continentiae Virgilianae secundum philosophos moralis (The Exposition of the Content of Virgil According to Moral Philosophy)
3. Expositio sermonum antiquorum (The Explanation of Obsolete Words)
4. De aetatibus mundi et hominis (On the Ages of the World and of Man)

A fifth work, which in the past has been attributed to Fulgentius is the Super Thebaiden (On the Thebaid). The manuscript ascribes the work to "S. Fulgencius Episcopus", whom Rudolf Helm (the first modern publisher of Fulgentius' work) considered to be the mythographer. This work was not included in the Carolingian manuscripts (possibly because it did not exist at this time), but was included in Helm's 1897 edition of the works of Fulgentius with strong reservations.^[13] While there is no consensus on the authenticity of the treatise, there is strong evidence to support the fact that the work was written in the twelfth century by a writer imitating the allegorical style of Fulgentius. This is not to say that the work was a forgery, but more likely that it was mistakenly attributed to Fulgentius as a result of scribal error.^[14]

In addition to these, Fulgentius mentions other works that have not survived to the present. In the first prologue to the Mythologies he mentions earlier satirical poems, and in the Content of Virgil he makes reference to his work on physiology.^[15]

Mythologies

Generally known as his chief work, the Mythologies (Latin: Mitologiarum libri III) is a series of legends told in three books. Each book is introduced by its own prologue. There are a total of fifty chapters: each chapter explains a classical myth and interprets that myth using allegory. These interpretations include etymologies of the names of certain characters, as well as conclusions as to the purpose of the story in terms of morality. In the prologue, Fulgentius claims that his purpose was to strip the classic Greek myths of all their fictitious and meaningless details in order to reveal the obscure truths they contain. He also suggests a Christian motive,^[16] though it would be inaccurate to define the Mythologies or any of Fulgentius' allegorical works as 'Christian allegories'.^[17]

Fulgentius's etymologies (while typical of his age) have been recently criticized as being extravagant, arbitrary, and often incorrect.^[18] While few have had anything positive to say about such etymological methods within the last two hundred years, the tradition dates back to the work of Plato and was common practice for such philosophic traditions as the Stoics and Neoplatonists. His use of such arbitrary etymologies to substantiate his allegorical claims is typical of his relentless tendency to stretch interpretations and search for truths that are not readily evident.^[19]

Several manuscripts of the Mythologies are addressed to an unidentified Catus, Presbyter of Carthage.^[20]

The Exposition of the Content of Virgil According to Moral Philosophy

In this exposition (original title: Expositio Virgilianae continentiae secundum philosophos moralis), Virgil and the Muses are summoned to explain the truth of his Aeneid. This text is similar to Fulgentius's interpretations of classical myths in the Mythologies . The shade of Virgil assumes a sage-like status, and he addresses the author in a pretentious and condescending way, often calling him a "homunculus", or 'boy'.^[21]

While Fulgentius claims to explain the Aeneid as an allegory for the full range of human life, the work seems to end rather abruptly, and the telling only goes as far as manhood. There is no evidence to suggest, however, that any part of the original text was lost. His hurried finish was probably caused by a loss of interest in its completion.^[21]

By the time of the Content of Virgil's writing, the tradition of allegorizing Virgil was not new. Aelius Donatus had already completed an allegorical exposition of passages of the Aeneid which closely resembles Fulgentius's ideas, indicating that they were probably not unique to Fulgentius.^[22] Furthermore, Fulgentius appears to have taken the idea of Virgil as a sage from the earlier writer Macrobius.^[23] However, it seems Fulgentius was original in his attempt to systematically interpret the entire Aeneid. He also seems to be the first to attempt to explain the text in a way at least partly acceptable to Christian readers.^[23]

The Explanation of Obsolete Words

This text (original title: Expositio sermonum antiquorum), addressed to a person named Calcidium in some manuscripts, is an explanation of 62 antique Latin words that may be found in Roman literature. In his Prologue to the work, Fulgentius states that he compiled the list of words in order to fulfill the commissions assigned by his master (who remains unidentified). His stated aim is to make clear the meaning of these words, not to revive them. However, beginning in the Carolingian period, writers did in fact make use of these rarities, using this text as their source.^[24]

With nearly every explanation, Fulgentius provides the reader with a small quotation as an example of the word's practical use, often citing the work it was taken from. However, many of these quotes are likely to be faked. Some works may be entirely made-up, while others have been liberally edited by Fulgentius. As was common with writers of this period, Fulgentius does not cite his immediate sources, perhaps in an attempt to obscure the fact that he had access to very few to draw from. The entire work was probably an attempt to improve his reputation as a scholar in hopes the reader would not take a critical look into his methods.^[25]

On the Ages of the World and of Man

This compendium of biblical and classical history (original title: De aetatibus mundi et hominis libri XXIII) is told in fourteen books, each lacking a particular letter of the alphabet ('A' in book i, 'B' in book ii., etc.). The deliberate omission of each letter means that Fulgentius cannot use any word containing that letter for the entirety of that section. However, he varies this avoidance of words with his second technique of swapping omitted letters for other arbitrarily selected letters. These techniques obscure his language, making it very difficult for the reader to understand his meaning.^[26] Just as in the Content of Virgil, Fulgentius claims the work was completed as a result of the request of his unnamed patron.^[26]

The increasingly rapid rate of historical retelling that occurs near the end of the work raises the question of whether the work was completed. Some manuscripts include in their prologues an introduction of the text as running 'from a to z', and others end book fourteen with the statement, "Here begins the fifteenth book, lacking P".^[27] However, book thirteen includes a line about ending the series with a history of the Roman emperors. It is possible that the last books have been lost over time, though it is also likely that Fulgentius simply lost interest in the work and gave it a hurried anticlimactic finish, as he did with other works such as the Content of Virgil.^[28]

Throughout his retelling of history, Fulgentius adds moral interpretations of events. He goes to great lengths to justify God's ways, and, consistent with his past works, stretches allegories to fit his ethical interpretations.^[29]

Unlike Fulgentius' other works, Ages of the World did not seem to attract much attention or admiration in the medieval period, probably due to its confusing literary techniques and style.^[30]

There has been some doubt as to whether or not this work was actually that of Fabius Fulgentius, though similarities in language and writing style convincingly demonstrate the attribution of this work to the same author as the first three.^[31] Among the arguments for a different author is an argument in favor of attributing this work to the bishop Fulgentius. This theory is based on the fact that the manuscripts of the Ages of the World attribute the work to "Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius" (Claudius and Gordianus both being names known to belong to members of the bishop's immediate family). However, the inclusion of these names in manuscripts was most likely the mistake of some eight or ninth century scribe who assumed 'Fulgentius' to be the well-known theologian. It is also possible that Fabius Fulgentius had multiple names (very popular for aristocrats of the time) which included Claudius and Gordianus.^[32]

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Thebaid

Thebaid

The Thebaid or Thebais was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan.

Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and chronicled in the New Testament.

Plato

Plato

Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. In Athens, Plato founded the Academy, a philosophical school where he taught the philosophical doctrines that would later became known as Platonism. Plato was a pen name derived from his nickname given to him by his wrestling coach – allegedly a reference to his physical broadness. According to Alexander of Miletus quoted by Diogenes of Sinope his actual name was Aristocles, son of Ariston, of the deme Collytus.

Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, were attributed to him in ancient times, but modern scholars consider his authorship of these poems as dubious.

Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

Aelius Donatus

Aelius Donatus

Aelius Donatus was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric.

Macrobius

Macrobius

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius, was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was as widespread as Greek among the elite. He is primarily known for his writings, which include the widely copied and read Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis about Somnium Scipionis, which was one of the most important sources for Neoplatonism in the Latin West during the Middle Ages; the Saturnalia, a compendium of ancient Roman religious and antiquarian lore; and De differentiis et societatibus graeci latinique verbi, which is now lost. He is the basis for the protagonist Manlius in Iain Pears' book The Dream of Scipio.

Lipogram

Lipogram

A lipogram is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided. Extended Ancient Greek texts avoiding the letter sigma are the earliest examples of lipograms.

God

God

In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In non-monotheistic thought, a god is "a spirit or being believed to control some part of the universe or life and often worshipped for doing so, or something that represents this spirit or being".

Fulgentius's work demonstrates a clear continuation of the antique Roman compendium tradition. This concise encyclopaedic style of compiling information was common for Roman writers like Cato the Elder and Cicero.^[33] His work is also consistent with the Stoic and Neoplatonic traditions which interpreted myth as a representation of deeper spiritual processes. His allegorical approach to mythography may have originated in the no-longer-extant Virgil commentary of Aelius Donatus, and it was certainly evident in the later moralising Virgil commentaries of Servius. Fulgentius's treatment of Virgil as a sage seems to have been borrowed from the encyclopaedic work of Macrobius, the first to elevate the Roman poet to such an authoritative status. However, Fulgentius's tendency to strip classical myth of all its manifest detail and replace it with ethical interpretations appears to have more in common with the late 5th-century writer Martianus Capella. Capella's work brought the theme of life as a spiritual journey to the forefront of Classical literature, a trend which Fulgentius seemed to carry a step further.^[34]

The Tradition of invoking the aid of questionable etymologies in order to support mythological allegories dates back to Plato, and carried on through Aristotle, the Stoics, and into the Middle Ages. Though Fulgentius was later criticized for such methods, they were not uncommon for writers of the time period (including Martianus Capella).^[35] Fulgentius's summaries of classical myths have traditionally been compared to his predecessor, Hyginus the mythographer, of the 2nd century AD. While both deal with many of the same legends, and some commonalities between their summaries suggests a common source, their work differs greatly in purpose and interest. Hyginus appears to have been dedicated to producing a comprehensive reference book for the myths, while Fulgentius was more concerned with allegorically dissecting the material, something Hyginus rarely attempts.^[36]

Influence on later mythography

Fulgentius's work is said to mark the transition from late-antique to Medieval literary study.^[37] After a period of decreased interest in the literature, the practice of mythography was picked up again in what is thought to be the 7th century by the so-called Vatican Mythographers. All three writers borrow Fulgentius's methods in order to search the classical myths for obscured meaning.^[38] However, it was during the Carolingian period, from the 8th through to the 10th centuries, that Fulgentius's work reached the height of its popularity. He came to be admired as one of the founding fathers of mythographic writing, and he was praised for uniting classical pagan literature and Christian teachings.^[39] This admiration led to the emergence of Fulgentian scholarship. The practice of differentiating between the author's intention and the deeper meaning of a piece of literature—carried to the extreme by Fulgentius—provided the framework for the commentaries of this period. The Mythologies in particular proved to be an essential storehouse of resources for the Medieval commentators who carried on his tradition of discussing classical poetry in moral terms. Further, his exotic language and use of rare words seemed to influence the writing style of a number of poets throughout the Middle Ages.^[38]

Fulgentius's manuscripts date as far back as the early 8th century. As a testament to his popularity, a copy of the Mythologies may have been available in England as early as the 9th century. Fulgentius remained a standard part of collections of antique mythology up until the 19th century, when his work began to come under popular criticism as being absurd and factually unreliable.^[40]

It has been suggested that Fulgentius' work, which is thought to have been commonly known throughout most of the Middle Ages, may have been a source for the structure of the famous Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.^[41]

Discover more about Historiographical contribution related topics

Cato the Elder

Cato the Elder

Marcus Porcius Cato, also known as Cato the Censor, the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write history in Latin with his Origines, a now fragmentary work on the history of Rome. His work De agri cultura, a rambling work on agriculture, farming, rituals, and recipes, is the oldest extant prose written in the Latin language. His epithet "Elder" distinguishes him from his great-grandson Cato the Younger, who opposed Julius Caesar.

Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics. He is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and served as consul in 63 BC.

Aelius Donatus

Aelius Donatus

Aelius Donatus was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric.

Macrobius

Macrobius

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius, was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was as widespread as Greek among the elite. He is primarily known for his writings, which include the widely copied and read Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis about Somnium Scipionis, which was one of the most important sources for Neoplatonism in the Latin West during the Middle Ages; the Saturnalia, a compendium of ancient Roman religious and antiquarian lore; and De differentiis et societatibus graeci latinique verbi, which is now lost. He is the basis for the protagonist Manlius in Iain Pears' book The Dream of Scipio.

Martianus Capella

Martianus Capella

Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a jurist, polymath and Latin prose writer of late antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education. He was a native of Madaura.

Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, drama, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, meteorology, geology, and government. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.

Middle Ages

Middle Ages

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

Beowulf

Beowulf

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025. Scholars call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 6th century. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his memory.

While Fulgentius's works remained popular during and well after the Carolingian period, his factual inaccuracies and questionable interpretations came under harsh criticism in the 19th century. His work has been overwhelmingly dismissed as trivial and misleading ever since.^[42] Historically, Fulgentius's work has been criticized as being bombastic and foolish.^[43] His Latin prose is obscure and often corrupt, making it difficult to decipher his meaning.^[44] He is known for unnecessarily long and wordy prose and highly obscure allusions.^[45]

Fulgentius is also known to make significant mistakes in his retelling of history, like his conflation of Augustus with Julius Caesar in On the Ages of the World and of Man.^[46] In addition, many of his facts, as well as his etymologies, are suspected of being based on second-hand sources or completely fabricated.^[19]

• Wolff, Étienne (ed., trans., comm.). Fulgence. Virgile dévoilé. Mythographes (Villeneuve-d'Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2009).
• Whitbread, Leslie George (ed., trans., comm.), Fulgentius the Mythographer. Translated from the Latin, with Introductions (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1971).