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De raptu Proserpinae

by Claudius Claudianus

Claudian was one of the last great Latin poets of the classical tradition, writing at the imperial court in Milan in the late fourth to early fifth century AD. With the current upsurge of research into late antiquity, he is a figure of great interest who has been undeservedly neglected - a creative artist with an immense knowledge of classical literature and a distinctive literary style. His works have been mined for what they reveal about the history of the period, as he largely wrote political propaganda for members of the court circle; but the De Raptu Proserpinae is fascinating in that it shows him working with subject matter of more personal choice. J. B. Hall has already produced two editions of the work, which deal exhaustively with the complicated manuscript traditions; but he self-confessedly leaves aside literary questions, which are the subject of this commentary. This is therefore the first study to look at the poem as a work of literary interest in its own right. The book includes a text designed to simplify Hall's apparatus, and a facing translation to make the work more accessible to non-specialists.