Claudian, Volume II: On Stilicho's Consulship 2-3. Panegyric on the Sixth Consulship of Honorius. The Gothic War. Shorter Poems. Rape of Proserpina

by Claudian, M. Platnauer

Overview

Late antique court poetry.

Claudius Claudianus, Latin poet of great affairs, flourished during the joint reigns (AD 394–5 onwards) of the brothers Honorius (Emperor in the West) and Arcadius (in the East). Apparently a native of Greek Alexandria in Egypt, he was, to judge by his name, of Roman descent, though his first writings were in Greek, and his pure Latin may have been learned as a foreign language. About AD 395 he moved to Italy (Milan and Rome) and though really a pagan, became a professional court poet composing for Christian rulers works which give us important knowledge of Honorius’ time.

A panegyric on the brothers Probinus and Olybrius (consuls together in 395) was followed in the subsequent ten years by other poems (mostly epics in hexameters): in praise of consulships of Honorius (AD 395, 398, 404); against the Byzantine ministers Rufinus (396) and Eutropius (399); in praise of the consulship (400) of Stilicho (Honorius’ guardian, general, and minister); in praise of Stilicho’s wife Serena; mixed metres on the marriage of Honorius to their daughter Maria; on the war with the rebel Gildo in Africa (398); on the Getic or Gothic war (402); on Stilicho’s success against the Goth Alaric (403); on the consulship of Manlius Theodorus (399); and on the wedding of Palladius and Celerina. He also composed non-official poems such as the three books of a mythological epic on the Rape of Proserpina, unfinished as was also a Battle of Giants (in Greek). Noteworthy are Phoenix, Senex Veronensis, elegiac prefaces, and the epistles, epigrams, and idylls.

Through the patronage of Stilicho or through Serena, Claudius in 404 married well in Africa and was granted a statue in Rome. Nothing is known of him after 404. In his works can be found true poetic as well as rhetorical skill, command of language, polished style, diversity, vigor, satire, dignity, bombast, artificiality, flattery, and other virtues and faults of the age.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Claudian is in two volumes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674991514
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1922
Series:	Loeb Classical Library , #136
Edition description:	5th printing/1st pub.1922/index
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	4.25(w) x 6.38(h) x 1.00(d)
Language:	Latin

About the Author

Maurice Platnauer (1887–1974) was Fellow and Vice-Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

On Stilicho's Consulship

Book II

Book III: Preface

Book III

Panegyric On The Sixth Consulship Of Honorius

Preface

The Panegyric

The Gothic War

Preface

The Gothic War

Shorter Poems

Rape Of Proserpine

Book I: Preface

Book I

Book II: Preface

Book II

Book III

Index Of Poems

Index Of Proper Names