Ikonographische Strategien Claudians

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the particular ways in which Claudian portrays the epic hunting episode in his Stil. 3. In addition to the poetic models that he re-elaborates, he takes up an iconographic language with which his public, the Roman élite, was very well acquainted: it is the same iconography that can be observed in the hunting mosaics of Dermech and Hippona—and above all in the Grande Caccia of Piazza Armerina. In both Claud. Stil. 3 and the mosaics, we encounter a hunt, or rather a collection of animals which takes place mainly in North Africa in preparation for the games in the Roman harena. Both the hunting episode in Claudian’s poem and the scenes of hunting in the mosaics point to the liberalitas or economical-political power, or even virtus, which the owners of the villas, or Stilicho himself, claimed for themselves. This clearly builds on a ‘language’ that the contemporary élite (4th century CE) appreciated and that Claudian exploited with great success.