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Chalcidius (Calcidius is more correct), 4th-cent. ce Christian translator and commentator on *Plato (1)'s Timaeus (to 53c only), using earlier Platonic and Peripatetic exegetes, especially *Adrastus (2), Gaius, *Numenius and *Porphyry. He dedicated his work to Hosius, according to MS tradition Constantine's bishop of Corduba (d. 358), though a high Milanese official of c.395 has also been suggested. The silence of *Macrobius and *Isidorus (2) of Seville about Chalcidius proves little, as Augustine, who is certainly later, uses *Cicero's Timaeus. It was Calcidius’ crabbed version, however, that was read in the west throughout the Middle Ages.

(5th–6th cents. ce), poet from *Coptus in Egypt. All that survives complete is an *ekphrasis on the statues decorating the baths of Zeuxippus in *Constantinople, which in diction and metrical practice shows clear traces of the influence of *Nonnus, and two epigrams. He was, however, a prolific author; lost works include an epic on Anastasius I's Isaurian victory in 497, versified histories (patria) of *Thessalonica, Nacle, *Miletus, *Tralles, *Aphrodisias, and *Constantinople (Suda, entry under the name), and a poem on the pupils of *Proclus (Lydus, Mag. 3. 26). He may have written the fragmentary poems in P. Vienna 29788 A–C.

Chronicon Paschale (‘Easter Chronicle’), a universal history from Creation to c. 630 ce. A particular concern is the establishment of chronological connections between Church feasts and the Creation and Incarnation; there are several computations and each year is dated by different methods. The anonymous narrative amalgamates Old and New Testament, Jewish, Christian, and secular material. *Malalas was an important source for mythological events and, increasingly, from c.400 to 532; between c.330 and 469 it uses the Constantinopolitan city chronicle also preserved in fasti Hydatiani and Marcellinus Comes, supplemented by Arian information paralleled in *Philostorgius. The fifth ecumenical council (553) dominates the sparse account of 532–602, but the 7th-cent. narrative constitutes an important witness to secular and ecclesiastical affairs until it breaks off in 628 in a letter from the emperor Heraclius describing Chosroes II's overthrow.

Claudius Mamertinus was the author of a speech delivered on 1 January ce 362 in *Constantinople, thanking the emperor *Julian for the gift of the consulship. Though highly eulogistic, his work is useful in reconstructing and assessing Julian's time as Caesar. He was disgraced in 368.

Collatio legum Romanarum et Mosaicarum was put together in Rome or Italy by a Jewish or Christian author with some knowledge, perhaps professional, of Roman law, in the 4th cent. ce. By juxtaposing biblical passages on the law of Moses with extracts from Roman imperial constitutions and juristic texts, the compiler aimed to demonstrate the compatibility of the older Mosaic law with its Roman counterpart. Although eccentric in its approach on occasion, the treatise is symptomatic of a general interest in assimilating Judaeo-Christian to Roman culture prevalent at the time, and contains legal material not found elsewhere.

Colluthus (Κόλλουθος) of Lycopolis (modern Asyut, Egypt) is the author of the Abduction of Helen (Ἁρπαγὴ Ἑλένης), an epyllion of 392 lines narrating the events leading to the beginning of the Trojan War, from the wedding of Thetis and Peleus to the arrival of Paris and Helen at Troy. According to the Suda (K 1951), Colluthus was a contemporary of emperor Anastasius (reigned 491–518) and composed a Calydoniaca in six books (probably on the hunt of the Calydonian boar; perhaps celebrating the love of Meleager and Atalanta), verse encomia, and a Persica (most likely a verse encomium on Anastasius, celebrating the end of the war against the Persians in 505). The Suda does not mention the Abduction of Helen, Colluthus’s only extant work, which has been transmitted in a very poor state.¹

The Abduction can be divided into three sections. After the initial invocation to the nymphs of the Troad (ll. 1–16), Eris retaliates for not being invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis by throwing a golden apple amongst the banqueters, which leads to the contest of Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, resolved by Paris in favour of the latter (ll. 17–191). Paris then voyages to Sparta and encounters Helen (ll. 192–325). Finally, a desolated Hermione tries to make sense of her mother’s absence (ll. 326–392).

Columbanus is important for two reasons: he was the earliest Irish scholar to have composed a significant corpus of writings in Latin, and he founded an austere but influential form of monasticism which flourished in France and Italy from the 7th century onwards. He was born in Leinster about 550 ce; his Irish name was Columba (perhaps a diminutive of Irish Colmán, perhaps a baptismal name influenced by Latin columba “dove,” which was subsequently Latinized as Columba-nus). (Scholars often refer to him as “Columba the Younger,” in order to distinguish him from the well-known abbot of Iona.) His earliest studies took place at Clain Inis (Cleenish, county Fermanagh) under one Sinell, but he subsequently became a monk at Bennchor (Bangor, county Down) under Abbot Comgall. The only written testimony to his years at Bangor is a Latin hymn for Eastertide in rhythmic verse (beginning “Precamur patrum”), which is preserved, anonymously, in the famous “Antiphonary of Bangor,” written around 700 and now preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan (MS. C 5 inf.). With the permission of Abbot Comgall, Columbanus left Bangor in 590 or 591, accompanied by twelve monks (a number symbolic of the twelve disciples of Christ), on a “pilgrimage for the love of God,” the aim of which was to convert pagan peoples to Christianity. His journey took him first to Brittany, then subsequently to Burgundy, where, apparently through the patronage of King Guntram (d. 592), he was granted the site of a hermitage in the wilderness at Annegray (département Haute-Saône), probably in 592; a year or so later, through the patronage of Guntram’s son Childebert II (d. 596), he was given a site for a monastery in the Roman ruins at Luxeuil (Luxovium), where he became the abbot of an ever-growing community of monks, both Irish and Frankish. While at Luxeuil, Columbanus enjoyed the patronage and protection of Childebert’s son Theuderic II (596–612); however, he lost this support when he chastised Theuderic for consorting with concubines, and, without royal support, the Burgundian bishops and nobles, who were unhappy with his (royally protected) independence from their jurisdiction, were able to secure his arrest and expulsion from Burgundy in 610. After proceeding to Auxerre and Nevers, Columbanus took a boat down the Loire to Nantes. When he failed to find a boat to take him to Ireland, he refocussed his attempts to find a permanent home for his monks, looking first in the region of Lake Constance, then ultimately in the Lombard kingdom of northern Italy, where at Milan in 612 he secured the patronage of the Lombard king Agilulf, from whom he obtained possession of a ruined church at Bobbio. After rebuilding the church there, he re-established his monastic community and ended his days, dying there on 23 November 615.