Cento
（
κέντρων). Properly, a patch work garment. In its secondary
meaning the word was applied to a poem composed of verses or parts of verses by wellknown
poets, put together at pleasure so as to make a new meaning. Homer and Vergil were chiefly
used for the purpose. The Christians were fond of making religious poems in this way, hoping
thus to give a nobler colouring to the pagan poetry. For instance, we have an Homeric cento
(
HomeroCentones) of 2343 verses on the life of Christ, ascribed to
Athenaïs, who, under the title of Eudociawas consort of the emperor Theodosius
II. Another instance is a poem known as the
Christus Patiens, or “the
suffering Christ,” consisting of 2610 verses from Euripides. Instances of Vergilian
centos are the sacred history of Proba Faltonia (towards the end of the fourth century A.D.),
and a tragedy entitled
Medea by Hosidius Geta. See Delapierre,
Tableau de la Littérature du Centon (Paris, 1875).
