Damasus of Rome

The Epigraphic Poetry

Dennis Trout

Oxford Early Christian Texts

Translation of all the epigraphic poetry of Damasus
Makes the poems accessible to a much wider scholarly and student audience
Offers a line by line commentary indicating classical parallels
Commentary incorporates recent archaeology and information on the cults of individual martyrs honoured by Damasus

Damasus of Rome

The Epigraphic Poetry

Dennis Trout

Description

Damasus of Rome makes available in English the epigraphic poetry of Damasus, bishop of Rome from 366 to 384. The translations are accompanied by the Latin text as well as by commentary on the literary, topographic, and archaeological features of Damasus' inscribed epigrams.

Antonio Ferrua published the last critical edition of Damasus' poetry in 1942. Since Ferrua's ground-breaking edition, however, much has changed. Recent scholarship has challenged the Damasan authorship of several epigrams, other pieces have been reinstated as Damasan, and archaeology has added fragments that were not known in 1942. Moreover in recent years new ways of appreciating Late Latin poetry have revolutionized thinking about many poets contemporary with Damasus. Damasus of Rome, therefore, not only offers new translations but updates the corpus and criticism of Damasus' poetry.

A full introduction situates Damasus in his times by considering his troubled election and the issues that dominated Rome and his papacy. The introduction also sets the poems within the broader sweep of the history of epigraphic poetry at Rome and relates them both to the development of the Christian catacombs and to the emergence of the cults of the Roman saints. Modern scholarship readily acknowledges that the years of Damasus' episcopacy were pivotal ones in the transformation of Rome into a late antique Christian city. His poetry, much of it inscribed at the suburban tombs of the Roman saints and martyrs, played an incalculable but significant role in the redefinition of both Roman and Christian identity in this remarkable age. Damasus of Rome now makes that poetry more readily available to scholars and students alike.

Damasus of Rome

The Epigraphic Poetry

Dennis Trout

Oxford Early Christian Texts

Damasus of Rome

The Epigraphic Poetry

Dennis Trout

Oxford Early Christian Texts

Author Information

Dennis Trout is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Missouri. He is the author of Paulinus of Nola: Life, Letters, and Poems, which won the Outstanding Publication Award of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. He has published widely on late antique life and literature.

Damasus of Rome

The Epigraphic Poetry

Dennis Trout

Oxford Early Christian Texts

Reviews and Awards

"Trout, well known for his studies on early Christian Rome and its epigraphy, presents the poems in an expert but at the same time accessible way [...] The volume should therefore appeal to a relatively broad audience at different levels, students and scholars alike, who are interested in (late) Latin poetry, in epigraphy, in early Christian and late antique Rome, in Damasus and his time, in the Romanmartyr cult and in the developing cult of saints, and, more generally, in the Christianisation of late antique Rome." -- Josef Lössl, Cardiff University, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"For scholars of Rome in late antiquity, Dennis Trout's Damasus of Rome is a crucially important book." -- Nicola Denzey Lewis, Reading ReligionÂ

"The real quality of this volume is that T. shows himself a master at every analytical perspective he utilizes to present a rounded picture of Damasus' inscriptions in their fourth-century context and beyond. I recommend this volume most favourably."--Journal of Roman Studies

"Damasus's monumental Roman inscriptions are far more accessible now because of the welcome new volumes published by ... T., [Trout] and both scholars and other interested readers will be glad for the help provided ... with understanding both Damasus's poetry and the context of his work." -- Aaron Pelttari, Gnomon