CLAUDIAN, CLAUDYAN. Claudius Claudianus, a Greek poet, fl. A.D. 395-404, was born in Alexandria. He became official poet to the young emperor Honorius, for whose wedding he wrote an epithalamium. He also wrote panegyrics on the emperor's great general Stilicho. The poem for which he is best known is De raptu Proserpinae. Claudian remained a popular writer for two hundred years after his death, as shown in the work of several poets who borrowed from him; for example, Dracontius, who lived in Carthage toward the end of the fifth century, wrote De raptu Helenae, showing Claudian's influence. From the seventh to the eleventh centuries, however, there is hardly a trace of his work in the literature. Interest was rekindled in the twelfth century, when the centers of the revival of classical learning were England and France. Excerpts from Claudian were then found in the schoolboy's reading list, in a school reader including the Distichs of Cato and the Fables of Avianus. Chaucer would have read Claudian at school if he attended the Almonry School. The headmaster of the Almonry bequeathed a number of books to the school, among them the works of Arianus, Lucan, Juvenal, and Claudian. Chaucer would not have known a separate edition of Claudian's poems but rather would have become acquainted with him through excerpts found in the Liber Catonianus, an anthology containing the Distichs of Cato, the Fables of Avianus, pieces by Statius, Maximianus, and the De raptu Proserpinae by Claudian. The version of De raptu in the Liber Catonianus was an edition of the classical text with its two prefaces, to which medieval editors had added a preface to the third book. This preface was taken from Claudian's Panegyricus de Sexto Consulatu Honorii Augusti.

The Merchant directs his listeners to Claudian for the story of Proserpina's rape, MerchT 2225-2233. Claudian appears with Virgil and Dante because he has revealed the torments of hell, HF I.445-450. He stands on a pillar of sulfur, HF III.1507-1512, since sulfur is associated with the volcanic Mount Etna in De raptu Proserpinae as the entrance to hell. The "wery huntere" stanza, PF 99-105, is a translation of lines 3-17 of the preface to the Panegyricus, and the tree list, PF 176-182, shows the influence of DRP II.101-117. Chaucer uses Signifer as a name for the zodiac, Tr V.1020, and Root gives the source as Claudian's In Rufinum 365. Pratt points out that the line is nearer DRP I.101-102. Claudian is mentioned with Valerian and Titus as poets who have written about women faithful in love, LGW G 280. Chaucer probably had Laus Serenae in mind, a poem Claudian wrote on the faithful and chaste wife of Stilicho, which also celebrates other women famous for their fidelity, including Lucretia, Alcestis, and Penelope, who are important in the Legend.

Claudian, the English variant of Latin Claudianus, appears in medial position, HF III.1507, and in final rhyming position, HF I.449; Claudyan, a spelling variant, occurs medially, MerchT 2232, and in final rhyming position, LGW G 280.