Personal and Political Poems

Translated with notes and introduction by Judith George. Venantius Fortunatus, writing in the latter half of the 6th century, was not only a major Latin poet, but also an important historical figure. Born in the north of Italy and given a classical education in Ravenna, he travelled as a young man to seek patronage in the courts of Merovingian Gaul, writing both formal and informal poetry for three of the royal brothers, Sigibert, Charibert and Chilperic, and for many influential figures in ecclesiastical and secular life. He settled eventually in Poitiers, as the close friend of the ex-queen Radegund, of Agnes, abbess of the community Radegund had founded, and of the major historian of the period, Gregory of Tours. In this period of cultural tradition, Venantius played an important part in adapting and developing literary traditions, influencing not only his contemporaries but succeeding generations as well. He also played a personal role in events of national and international significance, and his poems give glimpses of the individual lives and characters of his patrons, painting a picture of a literary, not merely literate, culture which complements Gregory's canvas of bloodthirsty dynastic fueding.