THE CONTROL REGAINING OVER THE DANUBE PROVINCES AS DESCRIBED BY CLAUDIANUS

The paper analyzes the poetic work of a late antique court poet from Western Roman Empire Claudius Claudianus. The key verbal construc - tions describing the situation on the Lower-Danube region after the Goths have settled are identified. The analysis of the Claudianus’ discourse shows the state of alarm of the Honorius court looked at the Balkan region. The high officials of Western Empire sought to establish Roman authority over the Danube region, regardless of whether the Eastern or Western court would rule there. Claudianus conveys to the readers that desire to see those lands under Roman rule. The study of contexts in which the Danube is men- tioned by Claudianus allows to assume that in the official discourse at court of the Western Emperor Honorius the Lower-Danube lands were pronounced pacified. They were beginning to recover from the destruction of the past wars, although still being perceived as a hotbed of instability. It was supposed that after Theodosius I first concluded the Treaty with the Goths in 382, and then Alaric and his people left Thrace in 395, the Danubian lands returned to Roman rule regardless whether the Roman institutes of power there functioned or not.

PROSERPINA IN PIECES: CLAUDIAN ON HER RAPE

antra procul Scyllaea petit, canibusque reductispars stupefacta silet, pars nondum exterrita latrat.(Claud. Rapt. 3.447f.) [The torch-light], farther away, reaches the cave of Scylla—her dogs drawn back,one part is silent with amazement, one part barks, still undaunted. With this climactic scene, the Latin epic poem De raptu Proserpinae by Claudius Claudianus (fl. c.400 AD) ends just as Ceres sets out to search for her lost daughter. The poem relates the myth primarily known from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter with a great deal of variations, the most crucial one being that mother and daughter, Ceres and Proserpina, are still not reunited when the poem comes to a close.

Marulićev Klaudijan

Auktor ovoga rada utvrdio je početkom 2005. godine da prijepis jedne pjesme Klaudija Klaudijana (Claudius Claudianus, oko 370/75 – oko 404) na posljednjim stranicama glasovitoga trogirskog kodeksa (Codex Parisiensis lat. 7989 olim Traguriensis) potječe od Marulićeve ruke. To otkriće ponukalo ga je da temeljito istraži čitav kodeks, što je dovelo do zaključaka koji imaju znatne implikacije ne samo za marulićevsku filologiju, nego i za povijest toga znamenitog rukopisa uopće. Te će se novosti izložiti na drugom mjestu. Tema je ovog rada Marulićev prijepis Klaudijanove pjesme Feniks (Phoenix, Carm. min. 27), a u njemu se pokušava odgovoriti na tri pitanja. Iz kojeg predloška je Marulić prepisao tekst? Kada je prijepis nastao? Čime je bio motiviran? (Drugačije rečeno: zašto je Maruliću Klaudijan važan; zašto je prepisao baš tu pjesmu?) U nedostatku drugih podataka, odgovor na prvo pitanje temelji se na tekstološkoj i paleografskoj analizi prijepisa. Pomoću njih dolazi se do zaključka da je Marulićev predložak bio rukopis, a ne tiskano izdanje. Na temelju usporedbe duktusa u prijepisu Feniksa s drugim Marulićevim autografima, od kojih se neki mogu barem približno datirati, ustanovljuje se da prijepis Feniksa vjerojatno potječe iz osamdesetih godina 15. st. Čvršća uporišta moguće je naći za odgovor na treće pitanje. Marulić je Klaudijanu posvetio dvije stranice svoje epigrafičke rasprave In epigrammata priscorum commentarius. Prepisavši natpis (CIL VI 1710 = Dessau 2949) što ga je rimski Senat postavio u čast Klaudijanu još za njegova života, Marulić je u svojem popratnom komentaru izrekao kratku ali nedvosmislenu pohvalu rimskom pjesniku: on je dostojan usporedbe s prethodnicima, a nadmašuje potonje pjesnike. Nije moguće utvrditi je li Marulić Klaudijana smatrao kršćaninom ili poganinom. No zato je pripovijest o bajoslovnoj ptici feniksu, koja uskrisuje iz vlastitoga pepela, za kršćane oduvijek nosila simbolično značenje Kristova uskrsnuća. Takvo značenje Maruliću zasigurno nije bilo nepoznato. Kršćanska simboličnost teme kao i visoko mišljenje o Klaudijanu kao pjesniku bili su dostatnim razlogom da splitski humanist prepiše Feniksa na prazne stranice svojega dragocjenog kodeksa. U prilogu se donosi prvo izdanje Marulićeva prijepisa Klaudijanove pjesme.

Wódz doskonały w świetle łacińskich panegiryków późnoantycznych

In this article I am describing how Roman panegyric’s writers of Late Antiquity (XII Panegyrici Latini, Claudius Claudianus, Sidonius Apollinaris, Flavius Merobaudes, Priscian, Ennodius, Corippus and others) presented an im­age of the perfect general with reference to their object of praise. On the ground of detailed analysis of those features I am going to indicate the most expected ones according to the social reception. Moreover, I will point out those means which were used by the authors to create the image of the ideal general. Next, I will pay attention to how the authors change their way in presenting the perfect general and how this development was connected with the general evolution of the genre. Lastly, I will answer a quite perverse question: if the perfect general could lead his soldiers to a victory in a real battle. In the background there will be a continu­ous question, if the panegyric – despite its limitation – can or can’t be treated as a valuable historical source.