(Decimus Magnus), one of the best poets of the fourth century, was the son of an eminent physician, and born at Bourdeaux. Great care was taken of his education, the whole family interesting themselves in it, either because his genius was very promising, or that the scheme of his nativity, which had been cast by his maternal grandfather, led them to imagine that he would one day rise to great honour. He made uncommon progress in classical learning, and at the age of thirty was chosen to teach grammar at Bourdeaux. He was promoted some time after to be professor of rhetoric; in which office he acquired so great a reputation that he was sent for to court to be preceptor to Gratian, the emperor Valentinian's son. The rewards and honours conferred on him for the faithful discharge of his office prove the truth of Juvenal's maxim, that when fortune pleases she can raise a man from the humble rank of rhetorician to the dignity of consul. He was actually appointed consul by the emperor Gratian in the year 379, after having filled other considerable posts; for besides the dignity of questor, to which he had been nominated by Valentinian, he was made prefect of the praetorium in Italy and Gaul after that prince's death. His speech, returning thanks to Gratian on his promotion to the consulship, is highly commended. The time of his death is uncertain; but he was alive in 392, and is said to have attained a great age. The emperor Theodosius had a great esteem for Ausonius, and pressed him to publish his poems. There is great inequality in his works; and in his manner and style there is a harshness which was perhaps rather the defect of the times in which he lived than of his genius. The best editions of his poems are that of Amsterdam in 1671, in 8vo, and that of Paris in 1728, in 4to.