Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/507

APPENDIX 485 bouring Vasates ; induced the Alans to separate from the Goths and undertake the Roman cause ; and the town was delivered by their intervention. It is probable that Claudius Claudianus was born in Egypt and certain that he belonged to Alexandria and spent his early years there (cp. Sidonius Apoll. ix. 275, and Birt's preface to his ed. of Claudian, ad. init.). His father Claudian (cp. C. I. L., 6, 1710) may be identical with Claudian the brother of the philosopher Maximus, Julian's teacher (Eunapius, Vit. Sojjh., p. 47 and 101, ed. Boiss. ; Birt, ib. p. vi). At Alexandria he wrote poems in Greek, and a fragment of his Ti.yavTOfiaxCa has been preserved. (There seems to have been another Greek poet of the same name, who wrote in the reign of Theodosius ii., and to him may be ascribed perhaps some Christian epigrams. But it is certain that the great Claudian wrote in Greek, ^ and his authorship of the Tt-yavrofjiaxCa has been successfully vindicated by Birt.) He seems to have come to Italy in or before A.D. 394, where lie obtained a small post in one of the departments (scrinia) under the control of the magister officiorum ; and his poetical talents were discovered in the senatorial circles of Rome. He was patronized by Rufinus Synesius Hadrianus, a countryman of his own, who held the post of Count of the Sacred Largesses (a.d. 395 ; he was Mag. Offic, 397-399, and subsequently Praet. Praef. of Italy), and by members of the great Anician family, in the years 394 and 395, before he was discovered and "taken up " by Stilicho and the court of Honorius. From 396 to 404 he was a sort of poet lam-eate to the Imperial court ; Honorius was his Augustus, Stilicho his Maecenas. His fame and favour did not bring anj' remarkable advancement in his career in tlie civil service ; by the year 400 he had become tribune and notary. But he enjoyed the ample honour of having his statue erected (perhaps at the beginning of a.d. 400 ; Birt, op, cit., xliv.) in the Forum of Trajan, and the inscription of this statue is preserved in the Museum of Naples. It is printed in C. I. L. 6, 1710, and runs as follows : CL] CLAVDIANI V C CLAJVDIO CLAVDIANO V C TRI BV]NO ET NOTARIO INTER CETERAS DEJCENTES ARTES PRAEGLORIOSISSIMO PO] ETARVM LICET AD MEMORIAU SEM PITERNAM SVFFICIANT ADTAMEN TESTIMONII GRATIA OB IVDICII SVI , EIDEM DDNN ARCADIVS ET HONORIVS I EELICISSIMI AC DOCTISSIMI 1 IJIPERATORES SENATV PETENTE ' STAT VAM IN FORO DIVI TRAIANI ERIGI COLLOCARIQVE IVSSERVNT EIN ENI BIPriAIOIO NOON KAI MOYCAN OMHPOY KAAYAIANON PfiMH KAI BACIAHC EQECAN "We have no record of Claudian's death ; but it is a probability closely ap- E reaching certainty that he died in a.d. 404 (so Birt, p. lix.). The silence of is muse after this date, amidst the public events which ensued, is unintelligible on any other supposition. Here, if ever, a conclusion from sUence is justified. Chronological Table op Claxjdian's Poems (after Birt). riyavTo/iaxCa A.D. 394, or shortly before. Panegyricus dictus ProbLno et Olybrio consulibus a.d. 394 between Sept. and Dec. Letters to Olybrius and Probinus (= Carm. Min., 40, 41) a.d. 395. Eaptus Proserpinae between a.d. 395 and 397. Panegyr. de iii. consulatu Honorii a.d. 395 between Sept. and Dec. In Rufinum Libri i. and ii. between a.d. 395 Dec. and a.d. 396 July 4 He attests it himself, Carm. Min., 41, 14, et Latiae accessit Graia Thalia togae.