Life
Claudian was born in Alexandria. He arrived in Rome before 395, and made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby becoming court poet. He wrote a number of panegyrics on the consulship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of Stilicho, and invectives directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of Arcadius.
He was well rewarded for these efforts. He was granted the rank of vir illustris. The Roman senate honored him with a statue in the Roman Forum in 400. Stilicho's wife, Serena, secured a rich wife for him.
Claudian was probably not a convert to Christianity, though Nicene Christianity had become the state church of the Roman Empire in 380. Since his poems do not record the achievements of Stilicho after 404, scholars assume Claudian died in that year.
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