A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

764 CLAUDIANUS.
sional pieces, in Greek as well as Latin, comprehended under the general title ofEpigrnammate. The
Christian hymns to be found among these in most
editions are, as we have observed above, certainly
spurious. 19. Lastly, we have a hundred and
thirty-seven lines entitled "Laudes Herculis;" but
with the exception of some slight resemblance in
style, we have no ground for attributing them to
Claudian.
The measure employed in the greater number of
these compositions is the heroic hexameter. The
short prologues prefixed to many of the longer
poems are in elegiacs, and so also are the last four
epistles, the last two idylls, and most of the epigrams. The first of the Fescennines is a system
of Alcaic hendecasyllabics; the second is in a
stanza of five lines, of which the first three are
iambic dimeters catalectic, the fourth is a pure
choriambic dimeter, and the fifth a trochaic dimeter
brachycatalectic; the third is a system of anapaestic
dimeters acatalectic; and the fourth is a system of
choriambic trimeters acatalectic.
It will be at once perceived that the first thirteen articles in the above catalogue, constituting a
very large proportion of the whole works of Claudian, although some of them differ from the rest
and from each other in form, belong essentially to
one class of poems, being such as would be exacted
from a laureate as the price of the patronage he
enjoyed. The object in view is the same in allall breathe the same spirit, all are declamations in
verse devoted either professedly or virtually to the
glorification of the emperor, his connexions and
favourites, and to the degradation of their foes.
"We must also bear in mind, while we discuss the
merits and defects of our author, and compare him
with those who went before, that although Virgil
and Horace were flatterers as well as he, yet their
strains were addressed to very different ears.
When they, after entering upon some theme apparently far removed from any courtly train of
thought, by some seemingly natural although unexpected transition seemed as it were compelled to
trace a resemblance between their royal benefactor
and the gods and heroes of the olden time, they
well knew that their skill would be appreciated by
their cultivated hearers, and that the value of the
compliment would be enhanced by the dexterous
delicacy with which it was administered. But
such refinements were by no means suited to the
"purple-born" despots of the fifth century and
their half-barbarous retainers. Their appetite for
praise was craving and coarse. If the adulation
was presented in sufficient quantity, they cared
little for the manner in which it was seasoned, or
the form under which it was served up. Hence
there is no attempt at concealment; no veil is
thought requisite to shroud the real nature and
object of these panegyrics. All is broad, direct,
and palpable. The subject is in each case boldly
and fully proposed at the commencement, and followed out steadily to the end. The determination
to praise everything and the fear lest something
should be left unpraised, naturally lead to a systematic and formal division of the subject; and hence
the career of each individual is commonly traced
upwards from the cradle, and in the case of Stilicho
separate sections are allotted to his warlike, his
peaceful, and his magisterial virtues,-the poet
warning his readers of the transition from one subdivision to another with the samoe care as when an

CLAUDIANUS.

accurate lecturer discriminates the several heads of
his discourse. It can scarcely be argued, however,
that the absence of all reserve rendered the task
more easy. The ingenuity of the author is severely
taxed by other considerations, with this disadvantage, that just in proportion as we might feel disposed to admire his skill in hiding the ugliness of
his idol within the folds of the rich garment with
which it is invested, so are we constrained to loathe
his servile hypocrisy and laugh at his unblushing
falsehood. It was indeed hard to be called upon
to vaunt the glories of an empire which was crumbling away day by day from the grasp of its feeble
rulers; it was harder still to be forced to prove a
child of nine years old, at which age Honorius received the title of Augustus, to be a model of wisdom and kingly virtue, and to blazon the military
exploits of a boy of twelve who had never seen an
enemy except in chains; and hardest of all to be
constrained to encircle with a halo of divine perfections a selfish Vandal like Stilicho. To talk of
the historical value of such works as the Belium
Gildonicszm and the Belloum Geticum is sheer folly.
Wherever we have access to other sources of information, we discover at once that many facts
have been altogether suppressed, and many others
distorted and falsely coloured; and hence it is impossible to feel any confidence in the fidelity of
the narrator in regard to those incidents not elsewhere recorded.
The simple fact that pieces composed under such
circumstances, to serve such temporary and unworthy purposes, have been read, studied, admired,
and even held up as models, ever since the revival
of letters, is in itself no mean tribute to the powers
of their author. Nor can we hesitate to pronounce
him a highly-gifted man. Deeply versed in all the
learning of the Egyptian schools, possessing a most
extensive knowledge of the history of man and of
the physical world, of the legends of mythology,
and of the moral and theological speculations of
the different philosophical sects, he had the power
to light up this mass of learning by the fire of a
brilliant imagination, and to concentrate it upon
the objects of his adulation as it streamed forth in
a flashing flood of rhetoric. The whole host of
heaven and every nation and region of the earth
are called upon to aid in extolling his patron, the
prince, and their satellites; on the other hand, an
infernal Pantheon of demons and furies with all
the horrors of Styx and Tartarus, are evoked as
the allies and tormentors of a Rufinus, and all
nature is ransacked for foul and loathsome images
to body forth the mental and corporeal deformity
of the eunuch consul. His diction is highly brilliant, although sometimes shining with the glitter
of tinsel ornaments; his similes and illustrations
are elaborated with great skill, but the marks of
toil are frequently too visible. His versification is
highly sonorous, but is deficient in variety; the
constant recurrence of the same cadences, although
in themselves melodious, palls upon the ear. His
command of the language is perfect; and although
the minute critic may fancy that lie detects some
traces of the foreign extraction of the bard, yet in
point of style neither Lucan nor Statius need be
ashamed to own him as their equal. His powers
appear to greatest advantage in description. His
pictures often approach perfection, combining the
softness and rich glow of the Italian with the
force and reality of the Dutch school.