Arator

ARATOR, ɑ-rê´-tɵr: Christian poet of the middle of the sixth century. He was a Ligurian of noble family, and was educated by the archbishop Laurentius at Milan; the poet Ennodius was his friend, and the latter’s nephew Parthenius was Arator’s fellow student at Ravenna. He chose a diplomatic career and for a time acted as comes domesticorum, and afterward as comes privatorum of the Ostrogothic king Athalaric. He then entered the priesthood and was made subdeacon at Rome by Pope Vigilius, to whom lie dedicated his epico-didactic poem, De actibus apostolorum libri ii (read in public in 544). In 1076 and 1250 hexameters he describes the deeds of the apostles to the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, taking the Acts of Luke as a basis. He treats his subject with some poetical skill and with rich allegorical expositions, which are often in bad taste. He aims to show the superiority of Peter to Paul, and the work contains traces of Mariolatry, hagiolatry, and relic-worship. An epistle of Arator’s to Vigilius, a second to an abbot Florianus, and a third to his early friend Parthenius are also extant. His main work was much read in the Middle Ages, and exists in many manuscripts of the tenth and eleventh centuries. It and the letters are in MPL, lxviii. 46-252, and there is an edition by A. Hübner, Neisse, 1850.

K. Leimbach.

Bibliography: K. Leimbach, Ueber den Dichter Arator, in TSK, xlvi. (1873) 225 sqq., and the works on Latin literature.