nnection the quatrains of the _Dittochaeon_, verses on themes of the Old
and New Testaments, may be mentioned in order to complete the list of his
works. His mastery of his very varied metres--hexameter, iambic, trochaic
and sapphic--is undoubted: everywhere we note the influence of Virgil and
Horace, even when these poets are not recalled by echoes of their diction
which are constantly greeting the reader of his poems.

Reference has already been made to the influence of Ambrose of Milan upon
the thought and style of Prudentius. But there is a second and even more
powerful influence that deserves at least briefly to be noted--namely, the
Christian art of the Catacombs. Apart from such definite statements as
_e.g._ are found in _Peristephanon_ xi., it is obvious that Prudentius
had a first-hand knowledge of Rome and particularly of the Catacombs.
Everywhere in his poems we find evidences of the deep impression made upon
his imagination by the paintings and sculptures of subterranean Rome. The
now familiar representations which decorate the remains of the Catacombs
suggested to him many of the allusions, the picturesque vignettes and
glowing descriptions to be found in his poetry. Thus, the story of Jonah--a
common theme typifying the Resurrection--the story of Daniel with its
obvious consolations for an age of martyrs, the Good Shepherd and the
denial of Peter may be mentioned among the numerous subjects which were
reproduced in early Christian art and transferred by the poet to his verse.
The symbolism of the Cock, the Dove, and the Lamb borne on the shoulders
of the Good Shepherd is a perpetually recurring feature in the lyrics and
martyr-hymns of Prudentius, who thus becomes one of our most valuable
authorities on the Christian art of the fourth century.

The poems, of which a new English rendering is presented in this volume,
are acknowledged by most critics to illustrate some of his best qualities,
his brightness and dignity, his touches of nature-painting and his capacity
for sustained and well-wrought narrative. As we study these lyrics of the
early Church, we feel anew the mighty change that Christianity wrought in
Roman life by its doctrine of immortality, and we note the curious
fascination which the circumstances of the Nativity and especially the
Adoration of the Magi had for the Western world. Prudentius had a
great vogue in the Middle Ages, and the modern renewal of interest in
mediaevalism invests with fre