CLAUDIANO, CLAUDIO. – The last notable Latin poet, born and educated in Alexandria; to the study of Greek, his native language, in which he also wrote verses, he added that of the Latin language and literature, acquiring a complete mastery of II. In 395 he came into contact with aristocratic families of the West, and, the following year, with the emperor Onorio and his minister Stilicone. His poems won him such fame that a statue was erected to him in the Forum of Trajan (J. Kaibel, Epigrammata graeca, Berlin 1878, ibid. 1879). After 405 he disappears from view.
C. possessed an easy and abundant gift of composition, which produced, in only nine or ten years, a copious epic and lyric output. He celebrated the consulships of Onorio, Stilicone, and other personages, the emperor’s marriage, his victories and those of Stilicone against Gildo, the African commander, and against Alaric; he inveighed against Rufino and Eutropio, opponents of Stilicone. Of mythological subject are the De raptu Proserpinus and the Gigantomachia. In addition, 53 shorter poems and 5 letters have survived. About twenty poems, including some on Christian subjects, attributed to C., are spurious or of doubtful authenticity.
C. has a fervent imagination and an elegant, harmonious verse; but rather than drawing upon a sincere and powerful inspiration, he relies on mythological erudition and rhetorical precepts, giving maximum prominence to elements designed for effect, such as descriptions and speeches.
According to s. Agostino (De civ. Dei, V, 26), C. was Christi nomine alienus; according to Orosio (VII, 35), paganus pervicacissimus; nevertheless, a paschal poem, the thirty-second of the minor poems, seems to prove that the poet was a Christian; in the longer poems, however, there is no trace of Christianity.