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Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (; c. 370 – c. 404 AD), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almost entirely in
hexameters Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...
or elegiac couplets, falls into three main categories: poems for Honorius, poems for Stilicho, and mythological epic.


Life

Claudian was born in
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
. He arrived in Rome in 394 and made his mark as a court poet with a eulogy of his two young
patrons Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
, Probinus and Olybrius, consuls of 395. He wrote a number of panegyrics on the
consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...
ship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of Stilicho, and
invective Invective (from Middle English ''invectif'', or Old French and Late Latin ''invectus'') is abusive, reproachful, or venomous language used to express blame or censure; or, a form of rude expression or discourse intended to offend or hurt; vituper ...
s directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of
Arcadius Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the e ...
. Little is known about his personal life, but it seems he was a convinced pagan:
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
refers to him as the 'adversary of the name of Christ' ('' Civitas Dei'', V, 26), and Paul Orosius describes him as an 'obstinate pagan' (''paganus pervicacissimus'') in his ''Adversus paganos historiarum libri septem'' (VII, 55). He was well rewarded for his political engagement. In fact, he was granted the rank of ''
vir illustris The title ''vir illustris'' ('illustrious man') is used as a formal indication of standing in late antiquity to describe the highest ranks within the senates of Rome and Constantinople. All senators had the title ''vir clarissimus'' ('very famous ...
''. The Roman Senate honored him with a statue in the Roman Forum in 400. Stilicho's wife, Serena, secured a rich wife for him. Since none of Claudian's poems record the achievements of Stilicho after 404, scholars assume Claudian died in that year. His works don't give an account of the sack of Rome, while the writings of Olympiodorus of Thebes has been edited and made known only in few fragments, which begin from the death of Stilicho.


As poet

Although a native speaker of Greek, Claudian is one of the best Latin poetry stylists of late antiquity. He is not usually ranked among the top tier of Latin poets, but his writing is elegant, he tells a story well, and his polemical passages occasionally attain an unmatchable level of entertaining vitriol. The literature of his time is generally characterized by a quality modern critics find specious, of which Claudian's work is not free, and some find him cold and unfeeling. Claudian's poetry is a valuable historical source, though distorted by the conventions of panegyric. The historical or political poems connected with Stilicho have a manuscript tradition separate from the rest of his work, an indication that they were likely published as an independent collection, perhaps by Stilicho himself after Claudian's death. His most important non-political work is an unfinished epic, ''De raptu Proserpinae'' ("The Abduction of Proserpina"). The three extant books are believed to have been written in 395 and 397. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, Claudian has not been among the most popular Latin poets of antiquity, but the epic ''De raptu'' influenced painting and poetry for centuries.


Works

*''Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus'' *''De raptu Proserpinae'' (unfinished epic, 3 books completed) *''In Rufinum'' ("Against Rufinus") *''De Bello Gildonico'' ("On the
Gildonic revolt The Gildonic War ( la, Bellum Gildonicum) was a rebellion in the year 398 led by ''Comes'' Gildo against Roman emperor Honorius. The revolt was subdued by Stilicho, the ''magister militum'' of the Western Roman empire. Background Revolt of F ...
") *''In Eutropium'' ("Against Eutropius") *''Fescennina / Epithalamium de Nuptiis Honorii Augusti'' *''Panegyricus de Tertio Consulatu Honorii Augusti'' *''Panegyricus de Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti '' *''Panegyricus de Consulatu Flavii Manlii Theodori '' *''De Consulatu Stilichonis'' *''Panegyricus de Sexto Consulatu Honorii Augusti'' *''De Bello Gothico'' ("On the Gothic War" of 402–403) *''Gigantomachy'' *''Epigrams'' *Lesser poems: ''Phoenix'', ''Epithalamium Palladio et Celerinae''; ''de Magnete''; ''de Crystallo cui aqua inerat''


Editions and translations

* Hall, J.B.. ''Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae'' (Cambridge University Press, 1969). *Dewar, Michael, editor and translator. ''Claudian Panegyricus de Sexto Consulatu Honorii Augusti'' (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1996). * Slavitt, David R., translator. ''Broken Columns: Two Roman Epic Fragments: The Achilleid of Publius Papinius Statius and The Rape of Proserpine of Claudius Claudianus, with an Afterword by David Konstan'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997). *Gruzelier, Claire, editor (translation, introduction, commentary). ''Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae'' (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1997). * Baier, Thomas and Anne Friedrich, ''Claudianus. Der Raub der Proserpina'', edition, translation and
commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...
(Darmstadt: WBG (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft), 2009), Edition Antike. * English verse translations of Claudian online: ** A. Hawkin'
translation
(rhymed couplet) via
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
. ** J. Strutt'sbr>translation
(blank verse) via Internet Archive. **The rape of Proserpine: with other poems, from Claudian (1814). Translated into English verse, with a prefatory discourse, and occasional notes.  By
Jacob George Strutt Jacob George Strutt (4 August 1784 – 1867) was a British portrait and landscape painter and engraver in the manner of John Constable. He was the husband of the writer Elizabeth Strutt, and father of the painter, traveller and archaeologist ...
. **The rape of Proserpine:  a poem in three books (1854). Translated by Henry Edward John Howard (1795–1868). **The rape of Proserpine (1714). With the story of
Sextus Sextus is an ancient Roman ''praenomen'' or "first name". Its standard abbreviation is Sex., and the feminine form would be Sexta. It is one of the numeral ''praenomina'', like Quintus ("fifth") and Decimus ("tenth"), and means "sixth". Although i ...
and
Erichtho In Roman literature, Erichtho (from ) is a legendary Thessalian witch who appears in several literary works. She is noted for her horrifying appearance and her impious ways. Her first major role was in the Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'', ...
, from the '' Pharsalia'' of Lucan. Translated by Jabez Hughes (c. 1685 – 1731).George Fisher Russell Barker (1898). " Hughes, Jabez". In ''Dictionary of National Biography''. 28. London. p. 178.


See also

*
Allegory in the Middle Ages The four senses of Scripture is a four-level method of interpreting the Bible. This method originated in Judaism and was taken up in Christianity by the Church Fathers. In Kabbalah the four meanings of the biblical texts are literal, allusive, ...
* Classical Latin * Late Latin * Latin poetry


References


Further reading

* Barnes, Michael H. 2005. "Claudian." In ''A Companion to Ancient Epic.'' Edited by
John Miles Foley John Miles Foley (January 22, 1947 – May 3, 2012) was a scholar of comparative oral tradition, particularly medieval and Old English literature, Homer and Serbian epic. He was the founder of the academic journal ''Oral Tradition'' and the Cen ...
, 539–549. Oxford: Blackwell. * Cameron, A. 1970. ''Claudian. Poetry and Propaganda at the Court of Honorius.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Cameron, A. 2015. ''Wandering Poets and Other Essays on Late Greek Literature and Philosophy.'' New York: Oxford Univ. Press. * Christiansen, P. G. 1997. "Claudian: A Greek or a Latin?" ''Scholia'' 6:79–95. * Ehlers, Widu-Wolfgang, editor. 2004. ''Aetas Claudianea. Eine Tagung an der Freien Universität Berlin vom 28. bis 30. Juni 2002'' München/Leipzig: K.G. Saur. *Fletcher, David T. “Whatever Happened to Claudius Claudianus? A Pedagogical Proposition.” ''The Classical Journal'', vol. 104, no. 3, 2009, pp. 259–273. * Gruzelier, C. E. “Temporal and Timeless in Claudian's 'De Raptu Proserpinae'.” ''Greece & Rome'', vol. 35, no. 1, 1988, pp. 56–72. *Guipponi-Gineste, Marie-France. 2010. ''Claudien: poète du monde à la cour d'Occident. Collections de l'Université de Strasbourg. Études d'archéologie et d'histoire ancienne.'' Paris: De Boccard. * Long, J. 1996. "Juvenal Renewed in Claudian's "In Eutropium"." I''nternational Journal of the Classical Tradition'' 2.3: 321-335. * Luck, Georg. 1979. "Disiecta Membra: On the Arrangement of Claudian’s Carmina Minora." ''Illinois Classical Studies'' 4: 200–213. * Martiz, J.A. 2000. "The Classical Image of Africa: The Evidence from Claudian." ''Acta Classica'' 43: 81–99. * Miller, P.A. 2004. ''Subjecting Verses: Latin Love Elegy and the Emergence of the Real.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press. * Mulligan, B. 2007. "The Poet from Egypt? Reconsidering Claudian's Eastern Origin." ''Philologus'' 151.2: 285–310. * Parkes, Ruth. 2015. "Love or War? Erotic and Martial Poetics in Claudian's De Raptu Proserpinae." ''The Classical Journal'' 110.4: 471–492. * Ratti, S. 2008. "Une lecture religieuse des invectives de Claudien est-elle possible?" ''AnTard'' 16: 177–86. *Roberts, Michael. “Rome Personified, Rome Epitomized: Representations of Rome in the Poetry of the Early Fifth Century.” ''The American Journal of Philology'', vol. 122, no. 4, 2001, pp. 533–565. * Wasdin, Katherine. 2014. "Honorius Triumphant: Poetry and Politics in Claudian's Wedding Poems." ''Classical Philology'' 109.1: 48–65. * Ware, Catherine. 2012. ''Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition.'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press. * Wheeler, Stephen M. 1995. "The Underworld Opening of Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae." T''ransactions of the American Philological Association'' 125:113–134.


External links

* * Full Latin text o
Divus Angelus
*Complete Latin text and English translation (Platnauer, 1922), at LacusCurtius, Bill Thayer'
edition
*Michael Hendry, critical edition

{{Authority control 400s deaths 4th-century Latin writers 4th-century Roman poets 4th-century Romans 5th-century Latin writers 5th-century Roman poets 5th-century Romans Late-Roman-era pagans Claudii Roman-era Alexandrians Year of birth unknown Year of birth uncertain