Editing Claudian (section)

==Life==
Claudian was born in [[Alexandria]]. He arrived in Rome in 394 and made his mark as a court poet with a [[eulogy]] of his two young [[Patronage in ancient Rome|patrons]], [[Anicius Probinus|Probinus]] and [[Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius|Olybrius]], consuls of 395.<ref>Roberts, Michael. "Rome Personified, Rome Epitomized: Representations of Rome in the Poetry of the Early Fifth Century", ''The American Journal of Philology'', vol. 122, no. 4, 2001, p. 533.</ref> He wrote a number of [[panegyric]]s on the [[consul]]ship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of the general [[Stilicho]], and [[invective]]s directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of [[Arcadius]].

Little is known about his personal life, but it seems he was a convinced pagan: [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] refers to him as "foreign to the name of Christ" (''[[The City of God|Civitas Dei]]'', V, 26), and [[Orosius|Paul Orosius]] describes him as an "obstinate pagan" (''paganus pervicacissimus'') in his ''Adversus paganos historiarum libri septem'' (VII, 55).

He was well rewarded for his political engagement, being granted the rank of ''[[vir illustris]]''. The [[Roman Senate]] honored him with a statue in the [[Roman Forum]] in 400.<ref>Conte, ''Latin Literature'', p. 658.</ref> Stilicho's wife, [[Serena (wife of Stilicho)|Serena]], secured a rich wife for him.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Companion to Ancient Epic|last=Barnes|first=Michael H.|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2009|isbn=978-1405188388|editor-last=Foley|editor-first=John Miles|pages=541|chapter=Claudian}}</ref>

Scholars assume Claudian died in 404, for none of his poems record the achievements of Stilicho after that year. His works give no account of the [[Sack of Rome (410)|sack of Rome]], while the writings of [[Olympiodorus of Thebes]] have been edited and made known only in few fragments, which begin from the death of Stilicho.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sass |first=Katie Lynn |title=Alaric: King of Visigoths and Tool of Romans |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/PDF/677551503.pdf |publisher=Marquette University |date=January 1, 2012 |page=2 |oclc=855973352 |access-date=June 28, 2021}}{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>