{"product_id":"9780674991514","title":"On Stilicho's Consulship 2-3. Panegyric on the Sixth Consulship of Honorius. The Gothic War. Shorter Poems. Rape of Proserpina by M. Platnauer","description":"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.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311845355893,"sku":"9780674991514","price":24.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674991514.jpg?v=1762819607","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9780674991514","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}