Poëzie en politiek in de 4e eeuw n.Chr.: Optatianus Porfyrius’ vormgedichten en Claudius Claudianus’ Laus Serenae

Abstract

In this article, I analyse two specimina of imperial panegyrical poetry, addressed at persons who hold lower ranks in the imperial hierarchy than the emperor: Constantine’s son Crispus in the first quarter of the 4th century AD in Optatianus Porfyrius’ hexametric poetry, and Honorius’ cousin (and sister by adoption, as well as mother-in-law) Serena in the last quarter of the same century, praised by Claudius Claudianus in his Laus Serenae. The analysis fits into scholarship of recent decades focusing on imperial representation, also of secondary figures in politics. It will be concluded that in each instance, even if a person in the shadow of supreme power is praised, the highest reigning emperor is still the (indirect) object of imperial praise, be it in prose or verse panegyric.