THE POEMS OF CLAUDIAN
ON STILICHO’S CONSULSHIP
BOOK II
(XXII.)
Thus far the warrior’s praise! Now let my gentler Muse relax the strings and tell by what virtues he governs the world, tempering fear with love, say what counsel moved him at last to assume those consular robes that cried out to him, and bestowed on our annals a year named after himself.
In the beginning Love[1] was the guardian of this vast universe, she who dwelt in the sphere of Jove, who attempers the sky ’twixt cold and heat, who is eldest of the immortals. For Love, pitying the elemental confusion, first disentangled Chaos; with a smile she scattered the darkness and bathed the world in light. She dwelleth now not in temples nor by altars warm with incense but in thy heart wherein she has made her home. Taught by her thou accountest it cruel and barbarous to batten on suffering and human slaughter; the sword that drips blood in war thou wearest unstained in peace;
[1] Claudian seems to have in his mind partly the Epicurean doctrine of ἔρως and partly the personification of the Clementia Caesaris, well known as a legend on so many Roman coins. See, also, for Clementia as a goddess, Claud. xvii. 166, and Stat. Theb. xii. 481 et sqq.
materiem praestes odiis; ut sontibus ultro
ignovisse velis, deponas ocius iram