A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

444 AUSONIUS.
tion. In what has been said above we have followed the accounts of Aurelius Victor and Zonaras
in preference to that of Pollio, who places the
usurpation of Aureolus early in 261; but on this
supposition the relations which are known to have
subsisted afterwards between Gallienus and Aureolus become quite unintelligible. [W. R.]
AU'RIA. [AURIUs, No. 4.]
AU'RIUS, the name of a family at Larinum,
frequently mentioned in Cicero's oration for Cluentius.
1. M. AuRIus, the son of Dinaea, was taken
prisoner at Asculum in the Italian war. He fell
into the hands of Q. Sergius, who confined him in
his ergastulum, where he was murdered by an
emissary of Oppianicus, his brother-in-law. (cc. 7,8.)
2. NUM. Ajnaus, also the son of Dinaea,
died before his brother, M. Aurius. (c. 7.)
3. A. AaRIUS MELINUS, a relation of the two
preceding, threatened to prosecute Oppianicus, on
account of the murder of M. Aurius. Oppianicus
thereupon fled from Larinum, but was restored by
Sulla, and obtained the proscription and death of
M. Aurius Melinus and his son, Caius. (c. 8.)
Melinus had married Cluentia, the daughter of
Sassia; but as his mother-in-law fell in love with
him, he divorced Cluentia and married Sassia.
(cc. 5, 9, 26.)
4. AURIA, the wife of the brother of Oppianicus,
was killed by the latter. (c. 11.)
AURO'RA. [Eos.]
AURUNCULEIA GENS, plebeian, of which
COTTA is the only family-name mentioned: for
those who have no cognomen, see AURUNCULEIUS.
None of the members of this gens ever obtained
the consulship: the first who obtained the praetorship was C. Aurunculeius, in B. c. 209.
AURUNCULEIUS. 1. C. AURUNCULEIUS,
praetor B. c. 209, had the province of Sardinia.
(Liv. xxvii. 6, 7.)
2. C. AURUNCULEIUS, tribune of the soldiers of
the third legion in B. c. 207. (Liv. xxvii. 41.)
3. L. AURUNCULEIUS, praetor urbanus B. C. 190.
He was one of the ten commissioners sent to arrange the affairs of Asia at the conclusion of the
war with Antiochus the Great, B. c. 188. (Liv.
xxxvi. 45, xxxvii. 2, 55.)
4. C. AURUNCULEIUS, one of the three Roman
ambassadors sent into Asia, B. c. 155, to prevent
Prusias from making war upon Attalus. (Polyb.
xxxiii. 1.)
AURUNCUS, POST. COMI'NIUS, consul
B. c. 501, in which year a dictator was first appointed on account of the conspiracy of the Latin
states against Rome. (Liv. ii. 18; Dionys. v. 50;
Zonar. vii. 13.) According to some accounts, he is
said to have dedicated the temple of Saturn, in 497,
in accordance with a decree of the senate. (Dionys.
vi. 1.) Auruncus was consul again, in 493, and
entered upon his office during the secession of the
plebs, who had occupied the Aventine. He carried
on war successfully against the Volscians, and took
several of their towns. It was during this campaign that C. Marcius first distinguished himself
at Corioli, whence he obtained the surname of Coriolanus. (Liv. ii. 33; Dionys. vi. 49, 91, 94; Cic.
de Rep. ii. 33, pro Balb. 23; Plut. Coriol. 8.) It was
probably on account of Coriolanus having served
under him that Auruncus is represented as one of
the ambassadors sent to Coriolanus when the latter was marching against Rome. (Dionys. viii. 22.)

AUSONIUS.

AUSON (Aioawv), a son of Odysseus either by
Calypso or Circe. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 44, 696;
Schol. ad Apollon. iv. 553; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 171;
Suidas, s. v. AMhroaoiw.) The country of the Auruncans was believed to have derived from him
the name of Ausonia. Dionysius (i. 72), in enumerating the sons of Odysseus by Circe, does not
mention Auson. Liparus, from whom the name of
the island of Lipara was derived, is called a son of
Auson. (Steph. Byz. s. v. AvTrdpa.) [L. S.]
AUSO'NIUS, who in the oldest MSS. is entitled DECIMUs MAGNUS AUSONIus, although the
first two names are found neither in his own poems,
nor in the epistle addressed to him by Symmachus,
nor in the works of any ancient author, was born
at Bourdeaux in the early part of the fourth century. His father, Julius Ausonius, who followed
the profession of medicine, appears to have been a
person of high consideration, since he was at one
period invested with the honorary title of praefect
of Illyricum; but there is no ground for the assertion of Scaliger, frequently repeated even in the
most recent works, that he acted as physician in
ordinary to the emperor Valentinian. If we can
trust the picture of the parent drawn by the hand
of the son, he must have been a very wonder of
genius, wisdom, and virtue. (Idyll. ii. passim;
Parental. i. 9, &c.) The maternal grandfather of
our poet, Caecilius Argicius Arborius, being skilled
in judicial astrology, erected a scheme of the nativity of young Ausonius, and the horoscope was
found to promise high fame and advancement.
(Parental. iv. 17, &c.) The prediction was, in all
probability, in some degree the cause of its own
accomplishment. The whole of his kindred took
a deep interest in the boy whose career was to
prove so brilliant. His infant years were sedulously watched by his grandmother, Aemilia Corinthia Maura, wife to Caecilius Arborius, and by
his maternal aunts, Aemilia Hilaria and Aemilia
Dryadia, the former of whom was a holy woman,
devoted to God and chastity. (Parental. vi. and
xxv.) He received the first rudiments of the Greek
and Latin languages from the most distinguished
masters of his native town, and his education was
completed under the superintendence of Aemilius
Magnus Arborius, his mother's brother, who taught
rhetoric publicly at Toulouse, and who is named as
the author of an elegy still extant, Ad Nympheam
nimis cultame. (Profess. viii. 12, &c., x. 16, iii. 1,
i. 11; Parental. iii. 12, &c.; Wernsdorf, Poet.
Lat. Minores, vol. iii. p. 217.) Upon his return
to Bourdeaux he practised for a while at the bar;
but at the age of thirty began to give instructions
as a grammarian, and not long after was promoted
to be professor of rhetoric. The duties of this
office were discharged by him for many years, and
with such high reputation that he was summoned
to court in order that he might act as the tutor of
Gratian, son of the emperor Valentinian. ( Praef ad
Syagr. 15, &c.) Judging from the honours which
were now rapidly showered down upon him, he
must have acquitted himself in his important charge
to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. He received the title of count (comes) and the post of
quaestor from Valentinian, after whose death lie
was appointed by his pupil praefectus of Latium,
of Libya, and of Gaul, and at length, in the year
379, was elevated to the consulship, thus verifying
to the letter, as Bayle has observed, the apophthegmn
of Juvenal: