of _militia_, and
understood to refer to a purely military post. Dressel thinks that
Prudentius was a _miles Palatinus_, that is, a member of the
best-paid and most highly-privileged imperial troops, who furnished
officers for some of the most lucrative posts in the provinces.
Though in the translation the usual meaning has been given to
_militia_, it must be regarded as uncertain in the absence of
more definite information regarding the office held by Prudentius.

24 The consulship of Salia (or Salias) belongs to the year 348, the
date of the birth of Prudentius. An inscription (quoted by Migne from
Muratorius, _Nov. Thes. Inscrip._, i. 379) has been found in the
monastery of St. Paul's outside the city bearing the words

FILIPPO . ET . SALLIA . COSS

I

1 Of this poem lines 1-8, 81-84, 97-100, were included in the Roman
Breviary as a hymn to be sung at Lauds, on Tuesday.

2 The allusions to the cock in this and the following poem (ii. 37-55)
were doubtless inspired by the lines of Ambrose in his morning hymn
beginning _Aeterne rerum conditor_. Cf. ll. 5-8 and 16-24:

_"praeco diei iam sonat
noctis profundae pervigil,
nocturna lux viantibus
a nocte noctem segregans._

* * * * *

_surgamus ergo strenue:
gallus iacentes excitat,
et somnolentos increpat:
gallus negantes arguit._

_gallo canente spes redit,
aegris salus refunditur,
mucro latronis conditur,
lapsis fides revertitur."_

_Translation._

"Dawn's herald now begins to cry,
Lone watcher of the nightly sky:
Light of the dark to pilgrims dear,
Speeding successive midnights drear.

* * * * *

Brisk from our couch let us arise!
Hark to the cock's arousing cries!
He chides the sluggard's slumbrous ease,
And shames his unconvincing pleas.

At cock-crow Hope revives again,
Health banishes the stress of pain,
Sheathed is the nightly robber's sword,
And Faith to fallen hearts restored."

See also Ambrose, _Hexaem._, v. 24, for an eloquent passage in
the same strain. The cock was the f