Claudio Claudian (Alexandria ?, c 370 CE -.... Rome, c 405 AD) was a poet in the court of the Western Roman emperor, Honorius, Stilicho guardian and regent, and the Roman emperor of the East Arcadio brother Honorius. From Alexandria and perhaps born there, but according to others could have been born at nearby Canopus Claudiano thoroughly learned Greek, their native language in Egypt, as well as Latin, the language of most of his later work, and arrived in Rome before of 395; perhaps his first composition there was a compliment to the consulate of his two patrons, young and Olibrio Probino. This will attracted the interest of the general Stilicho, who became a propagandist; distinguished, then, in the courtly panegyric genre, especially celebrating the victories of his patron, the overall winner of Vandal origin and Visigoth Alaric I Pollenza (403) and the Mauritanian Gildo, who became secretary in court Milan where he was the post of regent and guardian of the emperors. Also courtesan nature are his invectives against opponents in the court of Arcadius. These works gave him gifts such as the title of vir clarissimus, tribunus and notarius, the honor of being accepted into the ranks of the illustris, a statue in the Forum of Trajan (with an inscription in which he was praised as heir of Homer and Virgil) 1 and a rich girlfriend, selected by Stilicho's wife, Serena Flavia.
Claudian wrote mostly poems circumstances intended to glorify the emperor Honorius and Stilicho: eulogies, nuptial, odes to military victories, invective ... But also composed two mythological epilios unfinished: From raptu Proserpinae or "The Rape of Proserpina" by three books are preserved and which was composed in Latin between 395 and 397, and in Greek Gigantomachy of which only 128 are hexameters. Narrated battle of the giants against the gods of Olympus and was probably youthful work. He also survived a series of short written several poems in both Latin (the most famous Phoenix) and Greek. Modern criticism, however, is inclined to think that both the Gigantomachy as some of the poems belong to a Greek poet of the same name a little later that flourished in the time of Theodosius II (408-450) whose existence is attested to by Evagrius Scholasticus in his Ecclesiastical I, 19 History.
Modern critics consider a good Latin poet Claudian, one of the last. According to St. Augustine and Orosius, was a convinced Christian news reluctant to pagan; inspiration is primarily national and patriotic and stands as clever and elegant narrator; its arid passages are relieved occasionally by an amusing fragment; however, his style is touched by a defect in the literature of his time, retoricismo and coldness.
From the historical point of view, the poetry of Claudian is a valuable primary source for the period, but partial; since his poems recorded no Stilicho's achievements after 404 scholars assume that he died in that year.