# Easter Verses

- Author: [Decimus Magnus Ausonius](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/ausonius/)
- Latin title: *Versus paschales*
- Date: ca. 360-395 (approximate)
- Source: J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series Latina, vol. 19 (Paris), col. 878 (Latin text: Migne, Patrologia Latina 19, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (patrologia_latina-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0)

- Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator
- Editions and translations: Decimus Magnus Ausonius, Opera, ed. Rudolf Peiper (Leipzig: Teubner, 1886); Ausonius, Opuscula, ed. Karl Schenkl, MGH Auctores antiquissimi 5.2 (Berlin, 1883)
- Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ausonius-versus-paschales/
- Passages: 2

## Versus paschales, lines 1-23

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ausonius-versus-paschales/1/#p-1
- Source: PL 19:878
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: Ausonius’s Easter verses: the Father who gives eternal life, sent the prophets, and gave his Son, equal to him, who joined the Spirit’s work in baptism; the threefold faith.

### Latin text

Sancta salutiferi redeunt solemnia CHRISTI : / Et devota pii celebrant jejunia mystae. / At nos aeternum cohibentes pectore cultum, / Intemeratorum vim continuamus bonorum. / Annua cura sacris, jugis reverentia nobis. / Magne Pater rerum, cui terra, et pontus, et aer, / Tartaraque et picti servit plaga lactea coeli : / Noxia quem scelerum plebes tremit, almaque rursum / Concelebrat votis animarum turba piarum : / Tu brevis hunc aevi cursum, celeremque caducae / Finem animae donas aeternae munere vitae. / Tu mites legum monitus, sacrosque prophetas / Humano impertis generi, servasque nepotes, / Deceptum miseratus Adam : quem capta venenis / Implicuit socium blandis erroribus Eva. / Tu verbum, Pater alme, tuum, natumque, deumque, / Concedis terris totum, similemque, paremque. / Ex vero verum, vivaque ab origine vivum. / Ille tuis doctus monitis hoc addidit unum : / Ut super aequoreas nabat qui Spiritus undas, / Pigra immortali vegetaret membra lavacro. / Trina fides, auctore uno; spes certa salutis / Hunc numerum junctis virtutibus amplectenti.

### English translation (Claude)

The holy rites of saving Christ return,
and the devout initiates keep the pious fasts.
But we, holding the eternal worship in our breast,
keep up without break the strength of unblemished goods.
The rites have a yearly care; we have a constant reverence.
Great Father of things, whom earth and sea and air
and Tartarus and the milky tract of the painted sky serve,
at whom the guilty throng of sinners trembles, and whom in turn
the kindly crowd of devout souls celebrates with vows:
you give to this brief course of life, and to the swift end
of the perishing soul, the gift of eternal life.
You impart the gentle warnings of the laws, and holy prophets,
to the human race, and you preserve the descendants,
pitying deceived Adam, whom Eve, caught by the poisons,
entangled as her partner in alluring errors.
You, kindly Father, grant to the earth your Word, your Son and God,
whole, like you and equal,
true from true, and living from a living source.
He, taught by your counsels, added this one thing:
that the Spirit who swam over the waters of the sea
should quicken sluggish limbs with an immortal washing.
A threefold faith, with one author; a sure hope of salvation
for one who embraces this number with virtues joined.

### Scripture references

- Gen 3:6: allusion, medium confidence
- Gen 1:2: allusion, high confidence
- Titus 3:5: echo, medium confidence
- Matt 28:19: echo, medium confidence

### Translation notes

- Ausonius, Versus paschales, lines 1–23; the line breaks of the verse are kept.
- Echoes: Gen 3 (Adam and Eve); Gen 1:2 (the Spirit over the waters); John 3:5 and Titus 3:5 (baptism, the “immortal washing”); Matt 28:19 (the threefold faith).
- Digitization slips corrected: volis → votis, and a Greek capital Epsilon in Eva.

### Citation (SBL)

Ausonius, Vers. pasch. 1 (PL 19:878; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ausonius-versus-paschales/1).

## Versus paschales, lines 24-31

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ausonius-versus-paschales/1/#p-24
- Source: PL 19:878
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: Ausonius compares the Trinity with the three emperors who share one rule, and commends them to Christ.

### Latin text

Tale et terrenis specimen spectatur in oris / Augustus genitor, geminum sator Augustorum. / Qui fratrem, natumque, pio complexus utrumque / Numine, partitur regnum, neque dividit unum, / Omnia solus habens, atque omnia dilargitus. / Hos igitur nobis trina pietate vigentes / Rectores terrae placidos, coelique ministros, / Christe apud aeternum placabilis assere patrem.

### English translation (Claude)

Such an image is seen on earthly shores too:
the Augustus, father, begetter of twin Augusti,
who, embracing both his brother and his son with devout
divinity, shares out the kingdom yet does not divide the one,
holding everything alone, and having bestowed everything.
These, then, flourishing for us in threefold devotion,
peaceful rulers of the earth and ministers of heaven,
Christ, you who can appease, commend them before the eternal Father.

### Translation notes

- Versus paschales, lines 24–31. The Augustus is Valentinian I, who shared rule with his brother Valens and his son Gratian (Ausonius’s pupil); the comparison of the imperial college with the Trinity is the poet’s own.
- Digitization slip corrected: a stray full stop after vigentes.

### Citation (SBL)

Ausonius, Vers. pasch. 24 (PL 19:878; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ausonius-versus-paschales/24).