Praise and Self-Promotion in Ausonius’ Epistula 18

Ausonius’ poetic Epistula 18 (Green) appears on its surface to be nothing more than a trivial piece of flattery for Ausonius’ younger protégé, Paulinus of Nola, the letter’s addressee. That, in fact, is how it has been read for several centuries. Upon closer examination it becomes clear that the poem’s superficial elements of praise, though doubtless sincere enough in the admiration they express for Paulinus, conceal a (perhaps playful) second agenda in the poem: self-advertisement for Ausonius himself, in respect to both his political and his literary attainments. Ausonius carries out this agenda by means of poetic technique, multivalent use of words, and self-referential allusion to his own poetry. This short letter demonstrates the high level of sophistication attained by literary correspondents in Late Antiquity.