The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

(Ron) #1

C- ⇒ K-


C ⇒ M. T C


Claudianus (Alch.) (1st – 7th c. CE?)


Cited in the list of poie ̄tai (makers of gold, CAAG 2.26), but no treatise survives. The name is
derived from Claudius (meaning “from Claudius”) and, according to Festugière (1.225), he
must be after the emperor Claudius. The name Claudianus is also found in a magical
papyrus, associated with a sacrifice of incense to the Moon (PMG 7.862). Otherwise, the name
refers to klaudianos/-on, the alloy of lead and silver mentioned by -D
(CAAG 2.44).


CAAG 2.26; Festugière (1944/1950) 1.225, n.3, 240, 323 n.4.
Cristina Viano


Claudian, Claudius Claudianus (395 – 404 CE)


Acclaimed Latin poet, Claudian was born (ca 370 CE) and educated in Egypt, perhaps
Alexandria, before migrating to Italy (ca 394 CE). There he secured the patronage of
the imperial court under the regent Stilicho. His major works – panegyrics, invectives,
epithalamia, and an unfinished epic on the rape of Prosperina – exhibit medical, natural,
philosophical, and scientific flourishes, although many derive from rhetorical or literary
commonplaces. The panegyric for M T (carm. mai. 17) is of particular
interest for its discussion of natural phenomena and philosophers. More than a third of his
carmina minora treat animals and natural phenomena: e.g. hedgehogs (9), trained mules (18),
lobsters (24), the geothermal lake at Aponus (26), the phoenix (27), the source and flooding
of the Nile (28), magnetism (29), water encased in ice crystals (33–39), the torpedo-fish (49:
derived from O Hal. 2.56–85 and 3.149–155), and orreries (51). Titles of other
animal poems, now lost, are preserved in his Appendix. A few Greek works survive, including
two similar to c.m. 33–39. His silence on Stilicho’s second consulship strongly suggests his
death or retirement before 405 CE.


Ed.: M.-L. Ricci, Carmina Minora (2001).
A. Cameron, Claudian (1970); OCD3 337, J.H.D. Scourfield; A. Prenner, Quattro studi su Claudiano (2003).
Bret Mulligan


C ⇒ (1) A; (2) A; (3) B; (4) D;


(5) G; (6) M; (7) P; (8) T


C- ⇒ K-


C ⇒ (1) F C; (2) S C


Cloatius Verus (ca 1 – 10 CE)


Roman grammarian whose Ordinata Graeca might be taken to mean “Greek Categories.”
The fragments quoted by M (Sat. 3.19.2, 6, 20.1) are mainly alphabetical lists of
names for nuts, apples, pears, and figs, both Greek and Italian; his commentary on the


CLAUDIANUS
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