Neil Bernstein - The Complete Works of Claudian: Translated with an Introduction and Notes

This volume offers a modern, accurate, and accessible translation of Claudians work, published in English for the first time since 1922, and accompanied by detailed notes and a comprehensive glossary.

Claudian (active 395404 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 Claudians 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 Probinuss Consulship, Panegyrics on Honoriuss Third, Fourth, and Sixth Consulships, Invective Against Rufinus, Fescennines and Epithalamium for Honorius and Maria, The War With Gildo, Panegyric on Manlius Theodoruss Consulship, Invective Against Eutropius, Stilichos 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 Claudians 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.

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: Romes War With Hannibal (with Antony Augoustakis, 2021), and Seneca: Hercules Furens (2017).

Edited by Joseph Pucci

Brown University, USA

The Routledge Later Latin Poetry series provides English translations of the works of those poets writing in Latin between the fourth and the eighth centuries inclusive. It responds to the increasing interest in later Latin authors and especially the growth in courses devoted to late antiquity. Books in the series are designed to provide comprehensive coverage to support students studying later Latin poetry and to introduce the material to those wishing to read these important and often under translated works in English.

The RLLP is devoted to publishing creative, accessible translations. Each volume is self-contained: introductory material contextualizes the life and output of the poet in question, and includes manuscript and editorial details; some discussion of metrics and Latinity; and a sense of how the work being translated might be interpreted (including where possible the scholarly history of the same). This section concludes, as need be, with maps and a list of any editorial changes made by the translator to the established Latin text. At the conclusion of each volume, in addition to endnotes and a works cited list, there is a general index that, beyond allowing readers to negotiate content, also serves as a glossary of names, dates, figures, places and events. Volumes hew, as much as possible, to line-for-line versions of the Latin original, so that those who come to the translations with a knowledge of Latin can orient their reading with the original.

By offering English translations of later Latin poetry with comprehensive supporting material the series enables a greater understanding of late antiquity through one of its most important literary outputs. The poems are significant sources for the culture, religion and daily life of the period and clear and imaginative translations also offer readers the chance to appreciate their quality.

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF CLAUDIAN

Translated with an Introduction and Notes

Neil W. Bernstein

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Later-Latin-Poetry/book-series/LLP

Cover image: Lenlvement de Proserpine, Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1636).

Historic Images/Alamy Stock Photo

First published 2023

by Routledge

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2023 Neil W. Bernstein

The right of Neil W. Bernstein to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-367-37364-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-41678-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-35334-5 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9780429353345

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

IN MEMORIAM OPTIMI PATRIS LEONARD S. BERNSTEIN (19412016)

CARISSIMIS AMATISSIMISQUE FEMINIS YI-TING WANG, DANIELLE, HANNAH, ET ISABELLE BERNSTEIN

This book presents Claudians complete works in a modern, accurate, and accessible translation, in a volume that a student can afford. Its goals conform to those of Routledges Later Latin Poetry series, to provide comprehensive coverage to support students studying later Latin poetry. There is no similar volume available at present. The majority of Claudians works have not been translated into English since Maurice Platnauers Loeb Classical Library edition of 1922. Some of his works have been translated more recently but either appear in dated or inaccurate versions or expensive scholarly commentaries that are unaffordable for an undergraduate student.

I am grateful for the editorial acumen of Joe Pucci and Amy Davis-Poynter, who expertly steered this volume from inception to publication. Several friends and colleagues undertook to read some or all of the manuscript and offered detailed comments and suggestions. My sincerest thanks are due to Bill Dominik, Ian Fielding, John Jacobs, Micaela Janan, Christopher van den Berg, and Catherine Ware. Kyle Gervais once more undertook Herculean labors on all aspects of the project, suggesting innumerable felicitous renderings and alternate readings. Working with Antony Augoustakis on an earlier translation (Silius Italicus: Romes War with Hannibal, Routledge 2021) was the ideal apprenticeship for taking on Claudian. Michael Dewar patiently discussed numerous textual issues with me. This translation would never have been completed without Michael Sissons ongoing mentorship in the craft, his thoughtful criticism of difficult passages, and especially his constant encouragement