Claudian

(c. 370 - c. 404)

Based on autobiographical details found in his surviving works, Claudian is believed to have been born in Alexandria. Around the age of twenty-five, he moved to Italy, switched to writing in Latin rather than Greek, and entered the service of the high-ranking general Stilicho. The Roman Senate erected a statue of Claudian in the Forum, a rare honor, in 402. “As a poet Claudian is not always despicable,” wrote the classicist Maurice Platnauer, even if “he mistook memory for inspiration and so is often wordy and tedious.”