SOURCE: “The Historical Background of Claudian's Invective, In Rufinum,” in The Invective “In Rufinum” of Claudius Claudianus, edited by Harry L. Levy, The W. F. Humphrey Press Inc., 1935, pp. 7-26.

In the following essay, Levy examines the career of Flavius Rufinus, the subject inveighed against in one of Claudian's most celebrated poems.

The Historical Background of Claudian’s Invective, in Rufinum1

When Theodosius the Great died at Milan on January 17, 395, he left a troubled Empire to be divided between his two sons, the Augusti² Arcadius and Honorius. The former received the Eastern, the latter the Western portion of the Empire³. The strength of the dynastic principle⁴ insured for them both a peaceful succession, but their youth⁵ and their personal incapacity prevented them from playing more than a puppet's rôle in the realms of which they were the titular heads.

It is not, therefore, with them, but rather...