SULPICIUS, SEVERUS, an ecclesiastical writer, was born in Aquitania about the year 363 A.D. His father was a man of superior rank. Having received a suitable education, the son applied himself to the practice of the law, and distinguished himself by his learning and eloquence. He married a rich wife, and was thus placed in a state of greater independence. He chiefly resided at Toulouse, and at Eluso or Elusio, near Carcassonne. The death of his wife weaned his affections from the world, and he is
supposed to have devoted himself to an ecclesiastical, if not a monastic life. He had recourse to the instructions of Martin bishop of Tours, whose life he has written; and he likewise contracted a friendship with Paulinus bishop of Nola. The invasion of the Vandals impelled him to seek a place of refuge at Marseille, where he entered a monastery, and is supposed to have died about the year 410. His principal work is his Historia Sacra, brought down from the creation of the world to his own time, and written in a style superior to the standard of that declining age of Latinity. He has with propriety been designated the "Christian Sallust." The first edition was published by Flaccus Illyricus, Basil. [1556] 8vo. Various editions of his works subsequently appeared; some of which were illustrated by the notes of Sigonius, Vorstius, Horn, and Le Clerc. A more elaborate edition was undertaken by De Prato, Verona, 1741-54, 2 tom. 4to. He promised a third volume, which, however, did not make its appearance.