Abstract
AbstractThis study sets about to analyse the complex relations between rhetoric and reality by examining the use of traditional material, both rhetorical and mythological, in the group of nuptial poems written by Claudian in 398 A.D., and to show across the political and religious dimensions of these poems, how the use of topoi in the representation of the present proves to be both mirror and mask of reality. One finds that, in the political domain, Claudian, in consonance with imperial ideology, holds up a lofty mirror to the court and uses rhetorical topics to hide the shadowy aspects of the situation of the western empire controlled by Stilicho; in the religious domain, the poet ignores completely the Christian aspect of this marriage, unlike certain other late authors of epthalamic works, and anchors his poetry strongly in pagan tradition.
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