The Complete Works of Claudian by Neil W. Bernstein;

Author:Neil W. Bernstein;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Invective Against Eutropius, Preface to Book 2

Eutropius, the patrician who just now held the state’s

exalted reins, now fears the accustomed whip once more.

He’ll suffer the slowing shackles’ familiar rings

and mourn his empty threats against his masters.

Well pleased now with her crazy joke, Fortune threw 5

him down from his summit, and returned him to his earlier life.

Now Eutropius thinks about cutting wood with a different axe

than his lictors’, and being beaten at last with his own fasces.

The consul suffers punishments forbidden while still consul,

and the same year gave him both the consul’s robe and exile. 10

An unlucky omen for the people turns on him too,

and his freakish office savages its holder. The Fasti breathe

once more, now his name’s gone, and the palace

is healthier after vomiting out this ripe infection.

His associates hide, his cronies withdraw, 15

his whole army has collapsed along with its leader,

neither beaten in battle, nor overthrown by rebellion:

they didn’t die the way men die!

A little note inflicted the wound that killed off

this madness, and a letter did war’s savage work. 20

It thrust the unmanly tyrant from the effeminate palace,

and pushed once more from the bedchamber, Eutropius lost his power.

Likewise when a young man’s loyalty wavers, and he brings back

his old flame, his girlfriend weeps and leaves the house.

Eutropius dirtied his sparse white hair, spreading lots of dust, 25

tears filling his wrinkles as he cried like an old woman.

He humbly prostrated himself at the holy altars, his trembling

voice supplicating the young women to soften their rage.46

Countless masters gathered, each one looking for a slave

good for nothing but punishment. Though Eutropius 30

was ugly, and his soul was more disgusting than his face,

their anger still offered a price. He was worth buying for punishment.

46 See the introduction to this poem for Eutropius’s refuge in a church. What land will you run to now, eunuch, what side of the world?

Hatred surrounds you here, love withdraws from you there.

Both courts condemn you, under two skies. You’ll never 35

be a Westerner or an Easterner. You blind Sibyl,47

used to revealing fate for others, I wonder why

you’re quiet about your own destruction? Now the lying Nile

won’t see any dream visions for you, nor will

your prophets stay up all night, pitiful Eutropius. 40

47 Claudian calls Eutropius a Sibyl because of his pretense at giving prophecies (1.312–313) and because of his resemblance to an old woman. What of your “sister”?48 Will she dare to board the ship

with you, crossing the vast sea as your faithful companion?

Or perhaps she hates a poor eunuch’s bed, and she refuses

to love you now you’re broke and she’s rich?

You confess you were first to cut a eunuch’s throat, 45

yet you won’t be executed by your own example. So live on,

an embarrassment to fate. Look who made so many cities

tremble! Look whose yoke the people endured! Why lament

your wealth’s taken, which your “son” Arcadius will have?

Otherwise, you couldn’t be the emperor’s “father”!49 50

48 See 1.262–265. 49 For Eutropius’s execution of a eunuch, see 1.190. For the confiscation of Eutropius’s goods, see Theodosian Code 9.40.17. As a patrician (see Glossary), Eutropius was symbolically a “father” of the emperor.

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