Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information CL AUDIAN AND THE ROMAN E PI C T R A D I T I O N The historical importance of Claudian as writer of panegyric and propaganda for the court of Honorius is well established but his poetry has been comparatively neglected: only recently has his work been the subject of modern literary criticism. Taking as its starting point Claudian’s claim to be the heir to Virgil, this book examines his poetry as part of the Roman epic tradition. Discussing first what we understand by epic and its relevance for late antiquity, Catherine Ware argues that, like Virgil and later Roman epic poets, Claudian analyses his contemporary world in terms of classical epic. Engaging intertextually with his literary predecessors, Claudian updates concepts such as furor and concordia, redefining Romanitas to exclude the increasingly hostile East, depicting enemies of the West as new Giants and showing how the government of Honorius and his chief minister, Stilicho, has brought about a true golden age for the West. c a t h e r i n e wa r e is currently undertaking research at the University of Liverpool, having been awarded a mobility postdoctoral fellowship by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Specialising in the epic tradition and the literature of late antiquity, she is now working on the Panegyrici Latini project, preparing commentaries on two of the speeches in honour of the emperor Constantine. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information CLAUDIAN AND THE ROMAN EPIC TRADITION CATHERINE WARE © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107013438 © Catherine Ware 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Ware, Catherine. Claudian and the Roman epic tradition / Catherine Ware. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-107-01343-8 (hardback) 1. Claudianus, Claudius – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Epic poetry, Classical – History and criticism. 3. Rome – In literature. I. Title. pa6374.w37 2012 871´.01 – dc23 2012002685 isbn 978-1-107-01343-8 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information Contents Acknowledgements List of abbreviations page vii ix Introduction   Panegyric-epic   Roman epic   Defining the empire   Cycles of time   Enemies of Roman order   The golden age I: Virgil and Claudian   The golden age II: the individual  References Index locorum General index    v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information Acknowledgements This book arose from my doctoral thesis and I am greatly indebted to the financial assistance of Trinity College Dublin and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) during my years as a postgraduate student. I would also like to thank my doctoral supervisors, Monica Gale and Damien Nelis, for their unfailing guidance, inspiration and encouragement, and my external examiners, Michael Dewar and Philip Hardie, for their many helpful suggestions on how to improve the work. In the course of preparing the monograph, I received help from a great many people. Damien Nelis and Michael Dewar deserve further thanks for their readiness during this period to write references, discuss work in progress and offer convivial support. I am very grateful to Cillian O’Hogan, who commented on an early draft and helped me see what needed to be done, and to Bruce Gibson, who made time in an already overfilled schedule to read and comment in detail on constantly changing versions of work in progress. I would like to acknowledge the generosity of Alan Cameron, Andrew Gillett, Mark Humphries, Gavin Kelly and Aaron Pelttari, who sent me work before publication. I would also like to thank the anonymous readers of the manuscript for their helpful and thought-provoking suggestions. I hope I have profited by the help I have been given: certainly, all faults in the work are my own. My thanks are also due to Conor McNally for assistance with proof-reading and to Michael Sharp, Josephine Lane, Thomas O’Reilly and Jan Chapman at Cambridge University Press for their infinite patience and assistance. I would also like to thank Joseph Pucci, who was an inspiring guide to late antique literature in my early graduate days and who, with Scott McGill, organised the conference on ‘The Classics Renewed’. This conference, hosted by Rice University and Brown University in , demonstrated beyond question the outstanding scholarship now being devoted to late antique studies and was for me a tremendous stimulus in tackling the final revision of the early chapters in this book. My thanks to Joe, Scott and vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information viii Acknowledgements all the participants at the conference whose papers and comments, formal and informal, were invaluable to me as I attempted to define my thoughts on the literature of the late Roman world. Finally, I would like to thank the following, not all of whom may have a personal interest in Claudian and the Roman epic tradition but without whom the labour would have been considerably more laborious: Carmel and John Barry, Martine Cuypers, Michael Gleason, Jennifer and Terry O’Reilly, Donncha O’Rourke, David Scourfield, Diarmuid Scully, Mary Tangney and Michael Williams. My thanks are also due to my family, who have no interest at all in Claudian or epic but who put up with them and me for the duration: Patrick, Niall and Conor McNally; Dorothy and John Ware; Nick, Elizabeth and Claire O’Donovan. To my mother, Elizabeth, and to the memory of my father, Niall, this book is dedicated with love and thanks. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01343-8 - Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition Catherine Ware Frontmatter More information Abbreviations Abbreviations of titles of ancient works correspond to those used in the Oxford Classical Dictionary (third revised edition) with the addition of the following for works of Claudian: c.m. III Cons./De tertio consulatu IV Cons./De quarto consulatu VI Cons./De sexto consulatu Epith. Eut. ,  Fesc. Get. Gild. Laus Ser. P&O/Probinus et Olybrius Rapt./De raptu , ,  Ruf. ,  Stil. , ,  Theod./Theodorus carmina minora Panegyricus de tertio consulatu Honorii Augusti Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti Panegyricus de sexto consulatu Honorii Augusti Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii Augusti In Eutropium ,  Fescennina de nuptiis Honorii Augusti De bello Getico De bello Gildonico Laus Serenae Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus De raptu Proserpinae , ,  In Rufinum ,  De consulatu Stilichonis , ,  Panegyricus dictus Mallio Theodoro consuli I have used the Teubner text of J. B. Hall, Claudianus Carmina () throughout. All translations are my own. ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org