Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/508

 486 APPENDIX Chronolooioal Table of Claudian's Poems (aptbr Birt)— {con<.) Carm. Min., 32 a.d. 396 or later. Carm. IIin., 21, 22 • a.d. 396. Carm. Min., 19 a.d. 397 or later. Prafatio to Bk. ii. in Rufinum, and the whole work published a.d. 397. Panegyricus de iv. cons. Honorii a.d. 397 between Sept. and Dec Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii, and Fescennina de nupt. Hon. a.d. 398 Jan., Feb. Carm. Min., 45, 46, 47 between a.d. 398 and a.d. 404. De Bello Gildonico a.d. 398 Aug., Sept. Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuH A.D. 398 between Oct. and Dec. In Eutropium Bk. i., written and published by itself a.d. 399 between Jan. and June. In Eutropium Bk. ii. and Praefatio a.d. 399 between June and Sept. Carm. Min., 25 (Epithalamium diet. Palladio) a.d. 399. De consul. Stilichouis and Praefatio between a.d. 399 Sept. and a.d. 400 Jan. Carm. Min., 48, Carm. ADn., appen- dix 4 between a.d. 400 and 404. Carm. Min., 41 a.d. 400 or 401. Carm. Min., 20 before a.d. 401. Carm. Min., 50 autumn 401. De bello Gothico a.d. 402 April, Slay. Panegyr. diet, de vi. cons. Honorii a.d. 403 between Sept. and Dec. Carm. Min., 30 and 53 a.d. 404 early months. This table may be found convenient by those who have the older editions of Claudian. More details, and the proofs of the chronology, will be found in Th. Bu-t's Preface to his complete and admirable edition of Claudian (in Mon. Germ. Hist.). A handy text founded on Birt's work has been published by I. Koch (1893). Cp. also Jeep, CI. Claudiani Cannina, 1876-9. Vogt, de Claudiani carminum quae Stiliconem praedicant fide historica, 1863. Ney, Vindiciae Claudianeae, 1865. Auxelius Prudentius Clemens — the first distinctly Christian Latin poet — was a Spaniard by birth (born a.d. 348). He gave up a secular career at the age of fifty-seven and spent the remainder of his life in composing Christian jx)etry. For historical purposes his most important work is the Cmitra Symmachwn in two Books, on the question of the Altar of Victory. It is important to deter- mine the date of this work. It seems decisive (as Birt has observed in his Preface to Claudian) that in Bk. ii. Prudentius sings of the victory over Alaric at Pollentia but does not mention the triumph of Verona (see below, Appendix 17). It follows that the work Contra SymvuiCMim appeared between May 402 and August 403 ; another inference is that Symmachus was alive (cp. Gibbon, chap, xxviii. n. 22) in the year 402-3. (Birt points out a number of veroal echoes which show that the muse of the Christian poet was stimulated by the " Gothic "War " of the pagan. ) It seems highly probable that this controversial poem was called forth by an actual permission granted by Honorius to restore the Altar of Victory in A.D. 399. At least this is a very plausible inference from a line (19) of Claudian in the Praef. to De cans, Stil. iii. (a poem of that year) : advexit reduces secum Victoria Musas, combined with de vi. cons. Hon. 597 : adfuit ipsi. suis ales Victoria templis Romanae tutela togae : quae divite penna J'fvtricii reverenda fovet sacraria ccetus