A CHURCH TRIUMPHANT 73of King Chindasuinth who, for this and his despatch of Taio to Rome,
ranks second only to Sisebut as a royal patron of learning, Eugenius
revised the De Creatione Mundi (On the Creation of the World) of the
Mrican poet Dracontius (c. 490), and he completed it by adding a
new section on the Seventh Day of Creation. He also produced a
version of the same poet's Satisfactio (Satisfaction) originally written
to appease the Vandal king Gunthamund (484-496). The alterations
to the original texts made by Eugenius appear to have been made to
improve, in his view at least, his predecessor's vocabulary and poetic
structure, rather than to make any ideological points or theological
distinctions. As well as undertaking these revisions, he also composed
poetry in his own right, including a series of metrical epitaphs, amongst
which were ones for King Chindasuinth (d. 653) and for his son
Reccesuinth's wife Queen Reciberga. A large part of Eugenius's mi-
nor poems are a series of versifications of short sections from Isidore's
Etymologies, probably intended as examples for instruction in poetic
composition in the episcopal school known to have existed in Toledo
at this time. Eugenius's verse influenced the work of subsequent
generations of poets in Visigothic Spain, including his own pupil
Julian, whose own corpus of poems is now unfortunately lost. His
work continued to be cited and to have influence on both form and
content after the fall of the kingdom, and beyond its frontiers, as can
be seen in its use by the Cordoban Paul Albar (c. 850) and by the
foremost poet of the Carolingian Renaissance, himself of Spanish
origin, Bishop Theodulf of Orleans (d. 821).
Eugenius's other writings may, however, have been of more conse-
quence to him personally. He composed a lost work on the Trinity,
which according to the account in Ildefonsus's On Famous Men, was
going to be sent to the East, doubtless to the Byzantine Church.^33
Being composed in the mid seventh century, it is most probable that
it was principally concerned with the Monothelete controversy, which
dealt with the problems of the nature and 'operations' of Christ,
which was currently arousing much passion in Mrica and the rest of
the Byzantine Empire. What may be a fragment of Eugenius's treatise
has been detected by the Spanish scholar Jose Madoz in the credal
formulation of XI Toledo (675).34 Eugenius himself attended and
may well have composed the acts of the four Toledan Councils held
during his episcopate (VII-X), including the very important eighth
Council of 653. This dealt with the political problems created by the
recently ended reign of Chindasuinth, and also promulgated a