[Sidenote: Commodianus.] The earliest Christian poet is Commodianus. Of his life little is known, and the statement that he was born at Gaza, in Syria, is based upon a somewhat doubtful interpretation of the title of one of his poems.[133] In early life he was a pagan, but was converted, and became a bishop. His works consist of a long poem in defense of Christianity (_Carmen Apologeticum_) and a collection of eighty short poems called _Instructions_ (_Instructiones per Litteras Versuum Primas_) so composed that the initial letters of the lines spell the titles of the poems. The _Carmen Apologeticum_ contains references which fix its date in 249 A. D. The poems are remarkable for the earnestness of their Christian feeling and still more for their metrical peculiarities. The hexameters are divided into halves, and at the end of each half the rules for quantity are observed, while in the rest of the verse those rules are disregarded. The lines are not merely faulty hexameters, but a new and original combination of quantitative verse and prose. In the _Carmen Apologeticum_ the lines are arranged in pairs, so that each pair forms a distich. The most remarkable part of the _Carmen Apologeticum_ is the fantastic description of the end of the world with which the poem closes. The _Instructiones_ are divided into two books, the first warning the heathen and the Jews to lay aside their errors, the second containing advice for the various classes of Christians. In spite of the dryness of his style Commodianus is interesting as the earliest Christian poet, and the student of language finds in his poems many words and constructions taken from the common speech of the people.