[25] It is not impossible that this poem is a translation or at least an adaptation of a Greek (Alexandrine) original. So Förster, _Der Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone_, Stuttgart, 1874. [26] viii. 561-4 (dawns seem to suit him: _cf._ i. 1-6). [27] xviii. 82, 83. [28] Honourable exception should be made of xxi. 291 _et sqq._--one of the best and most sincere things Claudian ever wrote. [29] It is worth observing that not infrequently Claudian is making “tentamina,” or writing alternative lines: _e.g._ Carm. min. corp. vii. 1 and 2, and almost certainly the four lines of id. vi. v. is quite likely “a trial” for some such passage as xv. 523. [30] v. 453. [31] xxiv. 357-8. [32] Carm. min. corp. liii. 101-3. [33] xxviii. 490. [34] vii. 35 “Paganus pervicacissimus.” [35] _Civ. dei_, v. 26 “a Christi numine alienus.” [36] This poem does not seem to have been associated with the others till the 12th century. [37] See section on MSS. [38] Koch, _De codicibus Cuiacianis quibus in edendo Claudiano Claverius usus est_, Marburg, 1889. [39] I should like if possible to anticipate criticism by frankly stating that the text of this edition makes no claims to being based on scientific principles. I have followed Birt not because I think him invariably right but because his is at present the standard text. Where I differ from him (and this is but in a few places) I do so not because I prefer the authority of another MS. or because I am convinced of the rightness of a conjecture, but because Birt’s conservatism commits him (in my opinion) to untranslatable readings, in which cases my choice of a variant is arbitrary. Of the principle of _difficilior lectio_ I pragmatically take no account. * * * * * Page 1 CLAUDIAN * * * * * Page 2 CLAUDII CLAUDIANI CARMINA PANEGYRICUS DICTUS PROBINO ET OLYBRIO CONSULIBUS I Sol, qui flammigeris mundum complexus habenis volvis inexhausto redeuntia saecula motu, sparge diem meliore coma crinemque repexi blandius elato surgant temone iugales efflantes roseum frenis spumantibus ignem. iam nova germanis vestigia torqueat annus consulibus, laetique petant exordia menses. Scis genus Auchenium, nec te latuere potentes Anniadae; nam saepe soles ductoribus illis instaurare vias et cursibus addere nomen. 10 his neque per dubium pendet Fortuna favorem nec novit mutare vices, sed fixus in omnes cognatos procedit honos. quemcumque require hac de stirpe virum: certum est de consule nasci. * * * * * Page 3 PANEGYRIC ON THE CONSULS PROBINUS AND OLYBRIUS I