Intellectual Culture And Literary Practices 339
carried him off “in the power of shallowness through an empty channel”. While
admiring Parthenius’ eloquence and knowledge of pagan poets, Arator praised
his preference for “the true bards” (veros vates) such as Ambrose and Sidonius
Apollinaris and recalled his advice “to turn the path of this voice toward praises
of the Lord”.104 Like Christian poets of the previous century such as Sedulius
and Dracontius, who paraphrased the Scriptures in classical metre, Arator put
the Acts of the Apostles into hexameters. Describing his project in a letter to
Pope Vigilius, his patron who had suggested a public recitation of the poem,
Arator declared his intention to “sing in verses the Acts which Luke related”
and to “disclose alternately what the letter makes known and whatever mysti-
cal sense is revealed in my heart”.105 In his long poem, influenced by both the
classical and the Christian epic tradition, Arator followed the order of events
described in Acts, choosing episodes that were important to the narrative and
paying particular attention to the speeches of the main characters.106 The nar-
rative sections, rich with digressions and classical allusions, were written in the
ornamental rhetorical style that late antique poets and their audiences found
appealing. The exegetical sections, largely devoid of literary embellishments,
focused on mystical or allegorical interpretation of episodes, names, and con-
cepts that occurred in the text.107
Whereas Arator used classical literary techniques to develop Christian
poetic language and adapted the classical epic form to the goals of Christian
exegesis, Cassiodorus worked on placing classical learning within the frame-
work of Christianity. This work came to fruition in the post-Ostrogothic period,
but as Cassiodorus wrote in the beginning of his Institutions, his own doubts
104 Arator, Acts of the Apostles, Epistula ad Parthenium, p. 405, trans. p. 102:
“Cura mihi dudum fuerat puerilibus annis.
Versibus assiduum concelebrare melos,
Scribere quas etiam simulauit fabula partes
Et per inane fretum sub levitate rapi.”
Ibid.:
... “O utinam malles” dixisti “rectius huius
Ad Domini laudes flectere vocis iter.. .”
105 Arator, Acts of the Apostles, Epistula ad Vigilium, p. 214, trans. p. 22:
“Versibus ergo canam quos Lucas rettulit Actus,
Historiam que sequens carmina uera loquar.
Alternis reserabo modis, quod littera pandit
Et res si qua mihi mystica corde datur.”
106 Green, Latin Epics, with the synopsis of Arator’s poem and analysis of its contents on
pp. 274–6.
107 Roberts, Biblical Epic, pp. 87–92; Green, Latin Epics, pp. 298–321.