Claudian

Claudian (born c. 370, Alexandria—died c. 404, Rome) was the last important poet of the classical tradition. Coming to Italy and abandoning Greek, he showed his mastery of Latin in a poem celebrating the consulship (395) of Probinus and Olybrius. An epigram on his superior, the Greek Hadrianus, Deprecatio ad Hadrianum, jeopardized his civil post; but, by assiduously praising Stilicho, minister of the Western emperor Flavius Honorius, and denouncing his rivals at the court of Flavius Arcadius, he gained the position of tribunus et notarius, the rank of vir clarissimus, and the honour of a statue.

The Stilicho poems were issued after Claudian’s death but before the downfall of Stilicho in 408. They form part of the canon, in two books, known as Claudianus major, together with epistles, epigrams, and idylls. The longer poems are panegyrics on the consulships of Honorius, Mallius Theodorus, and Stilicho. A third book celebrates Stilicho’s entry into Rome. There are also invectives against ministers of Arcadius, two poems addressed to Serena, wife of Stilicho, who helped to arrange Claudian’s marriage, two epithalamiums, a delightful De sene Veronensi (“Old Man of Verona”), and Gigantomachia (“Battle of the Giants”).

Claudianus minor contains the mythological epic Raptus Proserpinae (“The Rape of Proserpine”), on which Claudian’s medieval fame largely depended. The second book of the epic has an elegiac epistle addressed to Florentinus, the city prefect, and reflects Claudian’s interest in the Eleusinian mysteries.

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Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Regarded in the Middle Ages as nearly the peer of Statius and Lucan, Claudian is faulted by modern critics for rhetoric too elaborate for his inferior themes, but his work is valuable as a historical source, and his fertility of invention and scathing invective compel attention. His diction and prosody are impeccable; yet their very smoothness proves tedious, and his graces too often seem engine-turned.