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This volume offers a modern, accurate, and accessible translation of Claudian's work, published in English for the first time since 1922, and accompanied by detailed notes and a comprehensive glossary.
Claudian (active 395-404 CE) was the last of the great classical Latin poets. His best-known work, The Rape of Proserpina, continues to inspire numerous retellings and adaptations. Claudian also wrote poems in praise of rulers, including the emperor Honorius and the regent Flavius Stilicho, which are essential sources for reconstructing politics and society in the late Roman empire. These poems and others are translated here, alongside an introduction offering an overview of Claudian's career, the wider historical and political context of the period, and the poetic traditions in which Claudian wrote: mythological epic, panegyric, invective, and epithalamium. The translations, with explanatory notes, include: The Rape of Proserpina, Panegyric on Olybrius and Probinus's Consulship, Panegyrics on Honorius's Third, Fourth, and Sixth Consulships, Invective Against Rufinus, Fescennines and Epithalamium for Honorius and Maria, The War With Gildo, Panegyric on Manlius Theodorus's Consulship, Invective Against Eutropius, Stilicho's Consulship, The Gothic War, and shorter poems.
The Complete Works of Claudian is a vital resource for students and scholars working on late antique literature, particularly Claudian's work, as well as those studying the history and culture of the western Roman Empire in this period. This accessible volume is also suitable for the general reader interested in the works of Claudian and this period more broadly.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. The Rape of Proserpina; 3. Panegyric on Olybrius and Probinus's Consulship and Letters to Olybrius and Probinus; 4. Panegyric on Honorius's Third Consulship; 5. Invective Against Rufinus; 6. Panegyric on Honorius's Fourth Consulship; 7. Wedding Poems. Fescennines and Epithalamium; 8. The War With Gildo; 9. Panegyric on Manlius Theodorus's Consulship; 10. Invective Against Eutropius; 11. Stilicho's Consulship; 12. The Gothic War; 13. Panegyric on Honorius's Sixth Consulship; 14. In Praise of Serena and Letter to Serena; 15. Shorter Poems.
About the author
Neil W. Bernstein (Professor, Classics and Religious Studies, Ohio University) is the author of several books on imperial Latin poetry, including
Silius Italicus: Punica 9 (2022),
Silius Italicus: Rome's War With Hannibal (with Antony Augoustakis, 2021), and
Seneca: Hercules Furens (2017).
Summary
This first translation of Claudian's works since 1922 offers an accessible, comprehensive overview of his varied works, with full English translations, detailed notes, and glossary. This is a vital resource for those working on late antique literature and Claudian's works.
Report
"Bernstein provides an updated English translation, modern but never colloquial, and substantially reliable... easily accessible even to a non-specialist audience who is passionate about Latin poetry. The translation is therefore worthy of becoming part of university courses on late Latin poetry." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review
