Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Gaudentius 1.
GAUDENTIUS, the author of an elementary treatise on music, which is written in Greek. No information whatever has come down to us concerning him, and we are in utter ignorance about him except one or two points which we may gather from the treatise which bears his name. In his theory Gaudentius follows the doctrines of Aristoxenus, whence it is inferred that he lived before the time of Ptolemy, whose views seem to have been unknown to him. His treatise bears the title Εἰσαγωγὴ ἁρμονική; it treats of the elements of music, of the voice, of sounds, intervals, systems, &c., and forms an introduction to the study of music which seems to have enjoyed some reputation in antiquity. Cassiodorus (Divin. Lect. 8) mentions it with praise, and tells us that one of his contemporaries, Mutianus, had made a Latin translation of it for the use of schools. This translation is, however, lost. The Greek original is printed with notes and a Latin translation in Meibom's Antiq. Musicae Scriptores. (Comp. Fabr. Bibl. Graec., vol iii, p.647, &c.) [L.S.]