Journal of Late Antiquity

Abstract:

This article reexamines the presentation of Honorius in Claudian’s Panegyric on the Third Consulship of Honorius (De III Cons. Hon.). It argues that the preface to the poem offers a powerful means of understanding Claudian’s purpose, which was to confirm Stilicho’s dominant position in the highly unstable political context that followed Theodosius’s death. The preface offers an allegorical image in which the claims and qualities of legitimate heirs are evaluated, and it establishes a small suite of virtues by which heirs are judged. Claudian’s preface makes vividly clear that this test could be failed, and yet the poem proper does not confirm the virtues that lead to being recognized as a legitimate heir in Honorius but rather in Stilicho. Claudian moreover compares Honorius to three mythic exempla of heroic children: Astyanax, Achilles, and Parthenopaeus, only one of whom survives to adulthood. He furthermore infantilizes Honorius even in contexts where there was scope to portray him in more mature roles, such as at Theodosius’s triumphal entry into Milan in winter 393. By these strategies, Claudian both illustrates the need of having a strong guardian for Honorius and confirms Stilicho as possessing the ideal virtues and authority for that purpose.