MAXIMIANUS

maximianus, a latin elegiac poet who flourished during the 6th century a.d. he was an etruscan by birth, and spent his youth at rome, where he enjoyed a great reputation as an orator. at an advanced age he was sent on an important mission to the east, perhaps by theodoric, if he is the maximianus to whom that monarch addressed a letter preserved in cassiodorus (_variarum_, i. 21). the six elegies extant under his name, written in old age, in which he laments the loss of his youth, contain descriptions of various amours. they show the author's familiarity with the best writers of the augustan age. editions by j. c. wernsdorf, _poetae latini minores_, vi.; e. bahrens, _poetae latini minores_, v.; m. petschenig (1890), in c. f. ascherson's _berliner studien_, xi.; r. webster (princeton, 1901; see _classical review_, oct. 1901), with introduction and commentary; see also robinson ellis in _american journal of philology_, v. (1884) and teuffel-schwabe, _hist. of roman literature_ (eng. trans.), § 490. there is an english version (as from cornelius gallus), by hovenden walker (1689), under the title of _the impotent lover_.