Commodian: Instructiones

The Instructiones of Commodian are eighty short poems in two books, written in a rough hexameter that mixes classical quantity with the stress accent of spoken Latin. Most are acrostics, the initial letters of their lines spelling out their titles, and the last poem spells the author’s name as ‘Commodianus mendicus Christi’. The first book addresses pagans and Jews, mocking the old gods and urging conversion; the second instructs Christians — catechumens, the faithful, matrons and clergy — and speaks of the end of the world.

Commodian is one of the most unusual figures of early Christian Latin literature, and his date and home are disputed: some place him in third-century Africa, others in the fifth century, in Gaul or elsewhere. His verse, close to popular speech, is a major witness to the transition from quantitative to accentual poetry. His fierce moralism and millenarian expectations offer a view of Christianity far from the learned theology of the Fathers, addressed to ordinary believers in plain and urgent terms.