CLAUDIAN, CLAUDIUS. — The last notable Latin poet, born and educated in Alexandria; though he spoke Greek, his native tongue, in which he also wrote verses, he added mastery of Latin language and literature, achieving full fluency. In 395 he came into contact with aristocratic families of the West, and the following year with Emperor Honorius and his minister Stilicho. His poems brought him such fame that a statue was erected to him in Trajan’s Forum (J. Kaibel, *Epigrammata graeca*, Berlin 1878, ibid. 1879). After 405 he disappears from view.
Claudian possessed a facile and abundant vein, which in only nine or ten years produced a copious epic and lyric output. He celebrated the consulships of Honorius, Stilicho and other figures, the emperor’s nuptials, his victories and those of Stilicho over Gildo, an African chieftain, and over Alaric; he launched invectives against Rufinus and Eutropius, adversaries of Stilicho. Mythological in subject are the *De raptu Proserpinae* and the *Gigantomachia*. There remain also 53 shorter poems and letters. About twenty poems, including some of Christian subject, attributed to Claudian, are spurious or of doubtful authenticity.
Claudian displays vivid imagination and elegant, harmonious verse; yet rather than drawing on sincere and powerful inspiration, he draws upon mythological erudition and rhetorical precept, giving maximum prominence to effects such as descriptions and set speeches.
According to St Augustine (*De civ. Dei*, V, 26), Claudian was *a Christi nomine alienus*; according to Orosius (VII, 35), a most obstinate pagan; yet an Easter poem, the thirty-second of the minor works, seems to prove that the poet was a Christian; in his more extensive poems, however, there is no trace of Christianity.
CLAUDIAN CLAUDIUS — CLAUDIUS