| Claudian |
Articles about Claudian |
Information AboutClaudian |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CLAUDIAN | |
| roman era poets | |
| late antique writers | |
| late antique latin writers | |
| year of birth unknown | |
| 404 deaths | |
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A Greek-speaking citizen of Alexandria , Claudian arrived in Rome before AD 395 , and made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby becoming court poet. He wrote a number of panegyrics on the Consulship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of Stilicho, and invectives directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of Arcadius . These efforts resulted with such gifts as the honor of the rank of ''vir illustris'', a statue, and a rich bride selected by Stilicho's wife, Serena . Modern critics consider Claudian a good poet, if not absolutely first-rate. He is elegant, tells a story well, and his polemical passages are occasionally unmatchable in sheer entertaining vitriol; but his writing is tainted by preciousness, a flaw of the literature of his time: and he is extraordinarily cold and unfeeling. From a historical standpoint, Claudian's poetry is a valuable, however distorted, primary source for his period. Since his poems do not record the achievements of Stilicho after 404 , scholars assume he died in that year. WORKS
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