Ausonius

Ausonius, the most famous of the learned poets active in the second half of the fourth century, was born at Bordeaux and taught school there for thirty years before being summoned to court to teach the future emperor Gratian. He subsequently held important public offices, returning to Bordeaux and private life after Gratian's death in 383. The subjects of many of his poems are typical of the academic world of the time. His Commemorations of the Professors of Bordeaux, a sequence of light verse obituaries of local teachers, in which people are honored - or gossiped about - in their daily…