It seems likely that after the death of Claudian (404) and that of his hero, Stilicho, the political poems (with the exception of the Panegyric on Probinus and Olybrius,[36] which did not concern Stilicho) were collected and published separately. The “Carmina minora” may have been published about the same time. The subsequent conflation of these two portions came to be known as “Claudianus maior,” the “De raptu” being “Claudianus minor.”
The MSS. of Claudian’s poems fall into two main classes:
(1) Those which Birt refers to as the Codices[xx] maiores and which contain the bulk of the poems but seldom the “De raptu.”
(2) Those which Birt calls the Codices minores and which contain (generally exclusively) the “De raptu.”
Class (1) may be again divided into (a) MSS. proper; (b) excerpts. I give Birt’s abbreviations.
(a) The most important are:
- R = Cod. Veronensis 163. 9th century. Contains only the “Carmina minora.”
- G = Cod. Sangallensis S n. 429. 9th century. Contains only the (Latin) “Gigantomachia.”
- G (sic) = Cod. Reginensis 123. 11th century. Contains only “De Nilo.”
- V = Cod. Vaticanus 2809. 12th century.
- P = Cod. Parisinus lat. 18,552. 12th or 13th century. Contains all the “Carmina maiora” except (as usual) the “De raptu” and “Pan. Prob. et Olyb.” No “minora.”
- C = Cod. Bruxellensis 5380-4. (?) 12th-13th century.
- Π = Cod. Parisinus lat. 8082. 13th century. This is Heinsius’ “Regius.” The MS. once belonged to Petrarch and still bears his name.
- B = Cod. Neapolitanus Borbonicus 1111 E 47. 13th century.
- A = Cod. Ambrosianus S 66. 15th century. Contains all the “maiora” except the “De raptu” and “Pan. Prob. et Olyb.”
- J = Cod. Cantabrigiensis coll. Trinitatis 0.3.22. 13th century.
Besides these are many inferior MSS. referred to collectively by Birt as ς.