SOURCE: "Classical Echoes in St. Jerome's Life of Malchus," The Classical Bulletin, Vol. 24, No. 3, January, 1948, pp. 28-29.

In the following essay, Duckworth cites Jerome's allusions to classical source materials in the Life of Malchus.

Professor Mierow has … published a new text and a translation of St. Jerome's Vita Malchi monachi captivi,¹ thus making this entertaining biography more available to the general reader. The biography contains two striking reminiscences from Roman poetry and seems rich in passages which may also be echoes from classical authors. It is well known that Jerome studied classical writers, including Plautus, Terence, Horace, Vergil, Lucan, and many others, and that his knowledge of Roman literature was extensive. The echoes and reminiscences of earlier authors in his works have been known for three-quarters of a century, ever since they were collected and published by Luebeck in 1872.² Van den Ven praises the collection by saying that...