ABSTRACT
The work known by the Greek title Eucharisticos (Thanksgiving)1 is an autobiographical poem of 616 hexameter lines written to express the author’s gratitude for God’s protection and guidance, especially in times of misfortune, of which his long life seems to have been full, for the author tells of his own illness as a teenager, his father’s death, the problems caused by the barbarian invasions in Gaul2 in the first half of the fifth century, the death of his wife and his separation from his children. The author was Paulinus of Pella, so-called because he was born in Pella in Greece in the mid-370s where his father was posted as an imperial administrator. As a child, Paulinus moved from Greece to Carthage, thence to Rome, finally ending up in Bordeaux from which his family originally came – in fact, it would seem that his grandfather was the poet Ausonius. The poem is of interest as giving us a picture of someone who first spoke Greek but had to learn Latin and who had first-hand experience of the barbarian invasions, providing fascinating details of the life of a wealthy landowner in the Gaul of the period.
