SOURCE: An introduction to Claudian: “De Raptu Proserpinae,” Cambridge University Press, 1969, pp. 1-114.

In the following excerpt, Hall critiques attempts to date the The Rape of Proserpine.

Date and Circumstances of Composition

Whereas the panegyrics and invectives can all be more or less precisely dated because of the references in them to historical events,¹ the lack of such references in the three books of the D.R.P. [De Raptu Proserpinae], coupled with the disputed interpretation of its two prefaces, has given rise to a number of substantially different dating theories, no one of which has met with universal approval.

The evidence which may be admitted in support of any dating theory is severely limited; more so in fact than those scholars allow who associate the D.R.P. chronologically with other poems on the ground of thematic or verbal similarities,² or argue from the premise that Claudian...