Ennodius, Felix
A Latin rhetorician and poet. He was born about A.D. 473 in the south of Gaul, and died in
521 as bishop of Pavia. Among other works, he wrote between 504 and 508 an extremely fulsome
panegyric on Theodoric the Great and a biography of Epiphanius, his predecessor in the see.
Both these writings have a value for the historian. Besides these we have a collection of
twenty-eight model speeches (
Dictiones), some of which were really delivered;
nine books of letters (297 in number) and two of poems, sacred and secular. The first book of
poems contains longer, the second shorter and occasional pieces. Both show a certain command
of form, and treat of journeys, marriages, etc. The panegyric on Theodoric has been translated
into German by Fertig in his work
Ennodius und seine Zeit (vols. i. and ii.
Passau, 1855; vol. iii. Landshut, 1858). A good edition of Ennodius is that of Vogel
(Berlin, 1885), after Hartel
(Vienna, 1882).
