CLAUDIUS CLAUDIANUS
\klˈɔːdɪəs klˈɔːdi͡ənəs], \klˈɔːdɪəs klˈɔːdiənəs], \k_l_ˈɔː_d_ɪ__ə_s k_l_ˈɔː_d_iə_n_ə_s]\
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A Roman poet of the 4th century. He stood high in favor with the emperors Honorius and Arcadius, and was promoted to the highest honors of the State. He was the last of the non-Christian poets of Rome, and stands high above his contemporaries, though his style and matter have the faults and blemishes of that decadent period,-bombastic expression and flattery of the great. His greatest work is an epic, "The Rape of Proserpine". His "Epithalamium on the Marriage of Honorius" has appended to it some "Fescennine Verses": both, especially the latter, would seem to continue the true Roman poetic tradition for that kind of compositions. Such poems would not be tolerated at a marriage feast in our times. Besides the works named, we have a considerable number of other poems by Claudianus.
By Charles Dudley Warner
Word of the day
flame-bearer
- One who bears flame or light; name given to members a genus humming birds, from their being furnished with tuft flery crimson-colored feathers round neck like gorget. little flame-bearer inhabits inner side extinct volcano Chiriqui, in Veragua, about 9000 feet above the level of sea. It measures only 1/2 inches length. There are various other species, all tropical American.