CLAU'DIA'NUS, CLAUDIUS. A Latin poet who lived in the end of the fourth and the be ginning of the fifth century, born at Alexandria. lle came to Rome in the year 395 and there secured the patronage of Stilicho and, through him, of the Emperor Hono•ius. For the great Vandal leader the poet entertained a love and admiration which is voiced in a number of his minor poems, lie Nrl'Of e first in Greek, which appears to have been his native tongue (though he was originally of Roman extraction) : but. as Gibbon says, he "assumed in his mature age the familiar use and absolute command of the Latin IniTuage; soared above the head: of his feeble contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of 300 years, among the poets of ancient Rome." His poems brought him into such repute that, at the request of the Senate, the emperors Areadius and Honorius erected a statue in his honor in the Forum of Trajaii.
productions of Claudianus that have conic down to us consist of two epic poems—Thc Rape of Proserpinc, and the incomplete Ila tle of the G ian is, besides panegyrics on flono•ius, epigrams, and occasional poems. C1a11di:inns displays a brilliant fancy and rich coloring, with variety and distinctness in his pictures; but he is often deticb.nt in taste and gracefulness. There are several manuscripts of The nape f Prosperinr. of which two, from the t w el fth and thirtec•nth centuries, are in the Lau rentine Li brary at Florence. The best editions are by Birt (Berlin, 1592) and Koch (Leipzig, 1893). A poor English translation was executed by Haw kins i London, 1517). Consult Hodgkin, Chtudian; The Last of the Roman Poets (London, 1875).