SOURCE: “Claudian's Silence: Contribution to History,” in Claudian as an Historical Authority, Cambridge University Press, 1908, pp. 183-92.

In the following excerpt, Crees examines the question of Claudian's reliability as an historian, particularly when his subject is his patron, the powerful general Flavius Stilicho.

The period which we have been considering is in no wise a rounded whole. Such unity as the Age of Claudian possesses, it derives from the fact that Claudian flourished then, and in his occasional poems celebrated contemporary history. If Claudian had continued to sound the praises of Stilicho until his death, 408 a.d., the years 395-408 a.d. could certainly claim to be a definite epoch, for it was then that the spirit of Stilicho dominated the policy of the Western Empire, and from time to time exercised a strong influence on the affairs of the East. As it is, Claudian's help fails us...