MENTIONS OF THE DANUBE IN THE POETRY OF CLAUDIUS CLAUDIANUS
Keywords:
Claudian, Claudius Claudianus, Danube, Ister, Danuvius
Abstract
Claudian (Claudius Claudianus fl. 395 CE–404 CE) was a late antique poet from the Hellenised East, who rose to fame as the court poet for the western Roman emperor Honorius (393– 423). He came to Rome around 395 CE, and there he began using his talent as a classically trained poet to write panegyrics for wealthy and influential aristocrats and politicians. Claudian is considered one of the best authors of late Roman literature, even though he directed his talents toward propaganda primarily celebrating the well-known military commander Stilicho and writing invectives against Stilicho’s enemies at the court of the eastern Roman emperor Arcadius (395–408). Claudian’s poetry is one of the most valuable sources for the history of this period. In his rich poetic images, he mentions many toponyms, oronyms, and hydronyms, and his knowledge of Balkan geography seems truly enviable. One of the most frequently mentioned hydronyms in Claudian’s poetry are those referring to the river Danube, which he mentions thirty-eight times. In this paper the authors cite and analyse Claudian’s references to the Danube as a river that was a very important natural, political, and cultural border for the ancient world.
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References
ANCIENT SOURCES:
Аmmianus Marcellinus, Ammianus Marcellinus with an English Translation John C. Rolfe, Ph. D., Litt. D., London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1935–1940.
Appian, The Foreign Wars (еd. L. Mendelssohn), Leipzig: Teubner, 1879.
Claudian, Claudian with an English translation by Maurice Platnauer, vols. 1–2, The Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University and William Heinemann, 1963.
Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd, 1914.
Prudentius, Prudentius, Vol 1–2 (ed. H. J. Thomson), London: Heinemann, 1949–1953.
REFERENCES:
Barnes, M. ‘Claudian’, in: J. M. Foley (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Epic, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005, 538–550.
Bloch, H. ‘The Pagan Revival in the West at the End of the Fourth Century’, in: A. Momigliano (ed.), The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963, 195–210.
Boškov, S. ‘Dunav i njegove pritoke na teritoriji naše zemlje u delima antičkih autora’, u: S. Gavrilović (ur.), Balkan i Panonija kroz istoriju, Međunarodni naučni skup, Novi Sad – Sremska Mitrovica, 9–10. jun 2005. Godine, Zbornik radova, Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet, Odsek za istoriju, 2006, 73–78.
Bury, J. B. History of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I, London: Macmillan & Co., 1923.
Cameron, A. ‘Wandering Poets: A Literary Movement in Byzantine Egypt’, Historia, 14/4, 1965, 470–509.
______. Claudian. Poetry and Propaganda at the Court of Honorius, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Cameron, A. and Garnsey, P. The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 13, The Late Empire, A.D. 337–425, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Christensen, A. S. Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002.
Christiansen, P. G. The use of images by Claudius Claudianus, The Hague & Paris: Mouton, 1969.
Christie, N. ‘The survival of Roman settlement along the Middle Danube: Pannonia from the fourth to the tenth century AD’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 11/3, 1992, 317–339.
Coombe, C. Claudian the Рoet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Cox, K. ‘Human and physical geography and the question of space’, Belgeo, 4, 2021, 1–16. - http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/52790, accessed 20th May 2022.
Dilke, O. A. W. Claudian. Poet of Declining Empire and Morals, Leeds University Press, 1969.
Gnilka, C. ‘Götter und Dämonen in den Gedichten Claudians’, Antike und Abendland, 18, 1973, 144–160.
Gregory D., Urry J. (eds.), Social Relations and Spatial Structures, London: Macmillan, 1985.
Grünewald, T. ‘Der letzte Kampf des Heidentums in Rom. Zu postumen Rehabilitation des Virius Nichomachus Flavianus’, Historia, 41/4, 1992, 462–487.
Jones, A. H. M. and Martindale, J. R. and Morris, J. Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 1 (А. D. 260–395), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
Jordán–Montés, J. F. ‘La pervivencia del paganismo en el reinado de Honorio (395–423 d.C.)’, Antigüedad y Cristianismo, 8, 1991, 183–199.
Kenney, E. J. and Clausen, W. V. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Vol. 2: Latin Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Lewis, C. T. and. Short, C. A Latin Dictionary. Founded on Andrews’ edition of Freund’s Latin dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
Liddell, H. G., Scott, R. and Jones H. S. A Greek – English Lexicon: with a revised supplement, Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, 1996.
Long, J. Claudian’s In Eutropium: Or, How, When, and Why to Slander a Eunuch, Univеrsity of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Martindale, J. R. Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. 2 (395–527), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Massey, D. ‘Space–time, “science” and the relationship between physical geography and human geography’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 24, 1999, 261–276.
______. For Space, London: SAGE, 2005.
Mihajlović, V. D. ‘Imagining the Ister/Danube in ancient thought and practice: River, the Scordisci, and creation of Roman imperialistic space’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 13/3, 2018, 747–780.
Mirković, M. Rimski gradovi na Dunavu u Gornjoj Meziji, Beograd: Arheološko društvo Jugoslavije, 1968.
Nathan, G. ‘The Ideal Male in Late Antiquity: Claudian’s Example of Flavius Stilicho’, Gender & History, 27/1, 2015,10–27.
Niquet, H. Monumenta virtutum titulique: senatorische Selbstdarstellung im spätantiken Rom im Spiegel der epigraphischen Denkmäler, Stuttgart: Steiner, 2000.
Nixon, C. E. V. and Rodgers, B. S. In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Nolan, J. F. Claudian: Poet of Peace and Unity in the Later Empire, Doctoral dissertation, Washington: University of Washington, 1973.
Obradović, M. ‘The river Danube and the Danubian lands in Plutarch’, in: G. R. Tsetskhladze, A. Avram and J. Hargrave (eds.), The Danubian Lands between the Black, Aegean and Adriatic Seas: 7th Century BC–10th Century AD, Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquties (Belgrade, 17–21 September 2013), Oxford: Archaeopress, 2015, 547.
______. ‘Znanja o reci Dunavu kod Helena u predrimsko doba’, u: R. Vasić, I. Draganić, i K. Maricki Gađanski (ur.), Evropske ideje, antička civilizacija i srpska kultura, Zbornik radova, Beograd : Društvo za antičke studije Srbije – Službeni glasnik, 2008, 272–284. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Papadopoulos, I. The Idea of Rome in Late Antiquity, Doctoral dissertation, Univeristy of Leeds, 2018, (https://www.academia.edu/38244724/Ioannis_Papadopoulos_The_Idea_of_Rome_in_Late_Antiquity_PhD_Thesis)
Petrović, P. (ed.), Roman Limes on the Middle and Lower Danube, Belgrade: Archaeological Institute, 1996.
Pokorny, J. Proto-Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (A Revised Edition of Julius Pokorny’s Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern – München 1959), Indo-European Language Association – http://dnghu.org/, 2007.
Pohl, W. and Heydemann, G. (eds.). Post-Roman Transitions. Christian and Barbarian Identities in the Early Medieval West, Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.
Roberts, М. The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
Rummel von, P. ‘Unrömische Römer und römische Barbaren. Die Fluidität vermeintlich präziser Leitbegriffe der Forschung zum spätantiken Gallien’, in: S. Diefenbach and G. M. Müller (eds.), Gallien in der Spätantike und Frühmittelalter. Kulturgeschichte einer Region, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013, 277–293.
Šašel Kos, M. ‘The Danube and the Sava in Strabo’s Geography and in Roman Inscriptions’, Keria: Studia Latina et Graeca, 12/2–3, 2010, 9–25.
Schlinkert, D. Ordo senatorius und nobilitas. Die Konstitution des Senatsadels in der Spätantike, Stuttgart, 1996.
Skok, P. Etimologijski rječnik I, Zagreb: Jugoslavenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, 1971.
Vanderspoel, J. ‘Claudian, Christ and the Cult of the Saints’, Classical Quarterly, 36, 1986, 244–255.
Visy, Z. ‘The Roman Limes and the Danube’, Der Donauraum, 52–2, 2012, 323–329.
Vukadinović, S. ‘Geography of Europe in the Poetry of Claudius Claudianus’, Indoevropejskoe âzykoznanie i klassičeskaâ filologiâ, 14, 2010, 175–177. (Russian Cyrillic with an English summary)
______. ‘Elementi hrišćanske religije u pesništvu Klaudija Klaudijana’, Duhovnata i materijalnata kultura vo predhristijanskot i hristijanskot period na teritorijata na Makedonija, međunarodna konferencija, Samokov, 14–16. septembar 2011, Knjiga rezimea, Prilep i Poznanj: Institut za staroslovensku kulturu i Institut za slavistiku Adam Micikijevič,– Poljska, 2011, 8. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Klaudije Klaudijan kao izvor za proučavanje antičke istorije Vojvodine i Evrope’, u: V. Gavrilović (ur.), Vojvođanski prostor u kontekstu evropske istorije“, Zbornik radova, Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu, Odsek za istoriju, 2012, 49–66. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Antički mit kao metafora istorije u pesništvu Klaudija Klaudijana, Doktorska disertacija, Beograd: Filozofski fakultet u Beogradu, 2013.
______. ‘Propagandna poetika Klaudija Klaudijana. Poezija kao oruđe vlasti’, Godišnjak Filozofskog fakulteta u Novom Sadu, 45/2, 2020, 29–43.
Vukadinović, S. i Smirnov-Brkić, A. ‘Laktantije De ave phoenice – рreplitanje paganskog mita i hrišćanskog sveta’, Jezici i kulture u vremenu i prostoru, međunarodna naučna konferencija, 22. novembar 2014, Knjiga rezimea, Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu, 2014, 59.
Ware, С. Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Аmmianus Marcellinus, Ammianus Marcellinus with an English Translation John C. Rolfe, Ph. D., Litt. D., London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1935–1940.
Appian, The Foreign Wars (еd. L. Mendelssohn), Leipzig: Teubner, 1879.
Claudian, Claudian with an English translation by Maurice Platnauer, vols. 1–2, The Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University and William Heinemann, 1963.
Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd, 1914.
Prudentius, Prudentius, Vol 1–2 (ed. H. J. Thomson), London: Heinemann, 1949–1953.
REFERENCES:
Barnes, M. ‘Claudian’, in: J. M. Foley (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Epic, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005, 538–550.
Bloch, H. ‘The Pagan Revival in the West at the End of the Fourth Century’, in: A. Momigliano (ed.), The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963, 195–210.
Boškov, S. ‘Dunav i njegove pritoke na teritoriji naše zemlje u delima antičkih autora’, u: S. Gavrilović (ur.), Balkan i Panonija kroz istoriju, Međunarodni naučni skup, Novi Sad – Sremska Mitrovica, 9–10. jun 2005. Godine, Zbornik radova, Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet, Odsek za istoriju, 2006, 73–78.
Bury, J. B. History of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I, London: Macmillan & Co., 1923.
Cameron, A. ‘Wandering Poets: A Literary Movement in Byzantine Egypt’, Historia, 14/4, 1965, 470–509.
______. Claudian. Poetry and Propaganda at the Court of Honorius, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Cameron, A. and Garnsey, P. The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 13, The Late Empire, A.D. 337–425, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Christensen, A. S. Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002.
Christiansen, P. G. The use of images by Claudius Claudianus, The Hague & Paris: Mouton, 1969.
Christie, N. ‘The survival of Roman settlement along the Middle Danube: Pannonia from the fourth to the tenth century AD’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 11/3, 1992, 317–339.
Coombe, C. Claudian the Рoet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Cox, K. ‘Human and physical geography and the question of space’, Belgeo, 4, 2021, 1–16. - http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/52790, accessed 20th May 2022.
Dilke, O. A. W. Claudian. Poet of Declining Empire and Morals, Leeds University Press, 1969.
Gnilka, C. ‘Götter und Dämonen in den Gedichten Claudians’, Antike und Abendland, 18, 1973, 144–160.
Gregory D., Urry J. (eds.), Social Relations and Spatial Structures, London: Macmillan, 1985.
Grünewald, T. ‘Der letzte Kampf des Heidentums in Rom. Zu postumen Rehabilitation des Virius Nichomachus Flavianus’, Historia, 41/4, 1992, 462–487.
Jones, A. H. M. and Martindale, J. R. and Morris, J. Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 1 (А. D. 260–395), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
Jordán–Montés, J. F. ‘La pervivencia del paganismo en el reinado de Honorio (395–423 d.C.)’, Antigüedad y Cristianismo, 8, 1991, 183–199.
Kenney, E. J. and Clausen, W. V. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Vol. 2: Latin Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Lewis, C. T. and. Short, C. A Latin Dictionary. Founded on Andrews’ edition of Freund’s Latin dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
Liddell, H. G., Scott, R. and Jones H. S. A Greek – English Lexicon: with a revised supplement, Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, 1996.
Long, J. Claudian’s In Eutropium: Or, How, When, and Why to Slander a Eunuch, Univеrsity of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Martindale, J. R. Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. 2 (395–527), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Massey, D. ‘Space–time, “science” and the relationship between physical geography and human geography’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 24, 1999, 261–276.
______. For Space, London: SAGE, 2005.
Mihajlović, V. D. ‘Imagining the Ister/Danube in ancient thought and practice: River, the Scordisci, and creation of Roman imperialistic space’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 13/3, 2018, 747–780.
Mirković, M. Rimski gradovi na Dunavu u Gornjoj Meziji, Beograd: Arheološko društvo Jugoslavije, 1968.
Nathan, G. ‘The Ideal Male in Late Antiquity: Claudian’s Example of Flavius Stilicho’, Gender & History, 27/1, 2015,10–27.
Niquet, H. Monumenta virtutum titulique: senatorische Selbstdarstellung im spätantiken Rom im Spiegel der epigraphischen Denkmäler, Stuttgart: Steiner, 2000.
Nixon, C. E. V. and Rodgers, B. S. In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Nolan, J. F. Claudian: Poet of Peace and Unity in the Later Empire, Doctoral dissertation, Washington: University of Washington, 1973.
Obradović, M. ‘The river Danube and the Danubian lands in Plutarch’, in: G. R. Tsetskhladze, A. Avram and J. Hargrave (eds.), The Danubian Lands between the Black, Aegean and Adriatic Seas: 7th Century BC–10th Century AD, Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquties (Belgrade, 17–21 September 2013), Oxford: Archaeopress, 2015, 547.
______. ‘Znanja o reci Dunavu kod Helena u predrimsko doba’, u: R. Vasić, I. Draganić, i K. Maricki Gađanski (ur.), Evropske ideje, antička civilizacija i srpska kultura, Zbornik radova, Beograd : Društvo za antičke studije Srbije – Službeni glasnik, 2008, 272–284. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Papadopoulos, I. The Idea of Rome in Late Antiquity, Doctoral dissertation, Univeristy of Leeds, 2018, (https://www.academia.edu/38244724/Ioannis_Papadopoulos_The_Idea_of_Rome_in_Late_Antiquity_PhD_Thesis)
Petrović, P. (ed.), Roman Limes on the Middle and Lower Danube, Belgrade: Archaeological Institute, 1996.
Pokorny, J. Proto-Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (A Revised Edition of Julius Pokorny’s Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern – München 1959), Indo-European Language Association – http://dnghu.org/, 2007.
Pohl, W. and Heydemann, G. (eds.). Post-Roman Transitions. Christian and Barbarian Identities in the Early Medieval West, Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.
Roberts, М. The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
Rummel von, P. ‘Unrömische Römer und römische Barbaren. Die Fluidität vermeintlich präziser Leitbegriffe der Forschung zum spätantiken Gallien’, in: S. Diefenbach and G. M. Müller (eds.), Gallien in der Spätantike und Frühmittelalter. Kulturgeschichte einer Region, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013, 277–293.
Šašel Kos, M. ‘The Danube and the Sava in Strabo’s Geography and in Roman Inscriptions’, Keria: Studia Latina et Graeca, 12/2–3, 2010, 9–25.
Schlinkert, D. Ordo senatorius und nobilitas. Die Konstitution des Senatsadels in der Spätantike, Stuttgart, 1996.
Skok, P. Etimologijski rječnik I, Zagreb: Jugoslavenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, 1971.
Vanderspoel, J. ‘Claudian, Christ and the Cult of the Saints’, Classical Quarterly, 36, 1986, 244–255.
Visy, Z. ‘The Roman Limes and the Danube’, Der Donauraum, 52–2, 2012, 323–329.
Vukadinović, S. ‘Geography of Europe in the Poetry of Claudius Claudianus’, Indoevropejskoe âzykoznanie i klassičeskaâ filologiâ, 14, 2010, 175–177. (Russian Cyrillic with an English summary)
______. ‘Elementi hrišćanske religije u pesništvu Klaudija Klaudijana’, Duhovnata i materijalnata kultura vo predhristijanskot i hristijanskot period na teritorijata na Makedonija, međunarodna konferencija, Samokov, 14–16. septembar 2011, Knjiga rezimea, Prilep i Poznanj: Institut za staroslovensku kulturu i Institut za slavistiku Adam Micikijevič,– Poljska, 2011, 8. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Klaudije Klaudijan kao izvor za proučavanje antičke istorije Vojvodine i Evrope’, u: V. Gavrilović (ur.), Vojvođanski prostor u kontekstu evropske istorije“, Zbornik radova, Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu, Odsek za istoriju, 2012, 49–66. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Antički mit kao metafora istorije u pesništvu Klaudija Klaudijana, Doktorska disertacija, Beograd: Filozofski fakultet u Beogradu, 2013.
______. ‘Propagandna poetika Klaudija Klaudijana. Poezija kao oruđe vlasti’, Godišnjak Filozofskog fakulteta u Novom Sadu, 45/2, 2020, 29–43.
Vukadinović, S. i Smirnov-Brkić, A. ‘Laktantije De ave phoenice – рreplitanje paganskog mita i hrišćanskog sveta’, Jezici i kulture u vremenu i prostoru, međunarodna naučna konferencija, 22. novembar 2014, Knjiga rezimea, Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu, 2014, 59.
Ware, С. Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
