Other Western Writerswriter
Who he was
- The last significant Latin poet in the classical tradition.
- He was born, and probably educated, at Alexandria in Egypt.
- When he was still a young man, he arrived in Rome in 394.
- Claudius became court poet to the emperor Honorius and the panegyrist of Stilicho, and was so famous in his own time as to be considered the equal of Homer and Virgil.
- He was at most a nominal Christian and was considered a pagan by St. Augustine and Orosius.
What he wrote
- He composed, in Greek and Latin, political panegyrics and invectives, mythological poems, epigrams, and miscellaneous short verse.
- He composed two short poems of Christian tenor: The De Salvatore (or Carmen paschale) which presents a wonderful sketch of Christology, and In Jacobum.
- They are evidence of the religious syncretism possible in an age of transition.