Arator, Man

Arator (fl. early-to-mid 6th century AD) was a Christian Latin poet and former secular official in Ostrogothic Italy. Born in Liguria and educated under the patronage of Bishop Ennodius of Pavia, he pursued a legal and administrative career at the court of Ravenna under Athalaric and Theoderic's successors, the milieu reflected in Cassiodorus's Variae, before withdrawing from public life. He entered the Roman clergy as a subdeacon and composed the De Actibus Apostolorum, a two-book verse paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles, which he recited publicly in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli over several days in 544 AD at the invitation of Pope Vigilius. His poem became a standard medieval school text and survives in hundreds of manuscripts, making him one of the most widely read late-antique Christian poets.