Against James, Cavalry Commander
By Paul’s dear ashes, by white-haired Peter’s shrine I plead:
don’t rip to tatters, fearless James, my verses!
So may Saint Thomas prove a shield guarding your breast,
and Saint Bartholomew ride beside you to war;
so with the saints’ aid may no German cross the Alps;
so may saintly Susanna suckle your courage;
so may the brute who tries to swim the freezing Danube
drown like the hasty chariots of Pharaoh;
so may our avenging lances pierce the Gothic hordes
and prospering Thecla favor the arms of Rome;
so may your wine-slain guests earn you a hearty Triumph
and the tapped barrels mitigate your thirst;
so may your stained sleeve hold no foeman’s blood, I plead:
don’t rip to tatters, fearless James, my verses!
Translation © Carey Jobe. Original:
In Jacobum magistrum equitum
Per cineres Pauli, per cani limina Petri,
nec laceres versus, dux Iacobe, meos.
sic tua pro clipeo defendat pectore Thomas
et comes ad bellum Bartholomaeus eat;
sic ope sanctorum non barbarus inruat Alpes,
sic tibi det vires sancta Susanna suas;
sic quicumque ferox gelidum transnaverit Histrum,
mergatur volucres ceu Pharaonis equi;
sic Geticas ultrix feriat romphaea catervas
Romanasque regat prospera Thecla manus;
sic tibi det magnum moriens conviva triumphum
atque tuam vincant dolia fusa sitim;
sic numquam hostile maculetur sanguine dextra:
ne laceres versus, dux Iacobe, meos.
Notes:
The poetical career of Claudius Claudianus (370-404 A.D.), the last great poet of the Roman Empire, was short but brilliant. At an early age he became, in effect, court poet for the Emperor Honorius (reigned 393-423 A.D.). Writing not long after Christianity became the official religion of the Rome, Claudian was an unabashed pagan. He composed a host of praise poems for emperor, court favorites, and generals, invectives against court foes, and many shorter poems that reveal his character, of which Against James is an example. Claudian disappears from history without explanation a few years before the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 A.D.
We know nothing about James, Cavalry Commander, or the incident described, other than what can be inferred from Claudian’s poem. But the invocation of numerous Christian saints suggests this James was likely a Christian who ripped up—perhaps publicly—the verses of the pagan poet. Claudian’s tongue-in-cheek plea for leniency at a time when barbarians were on the verge of overrunning the Roman Empire is an example of his keen gift for poetic satire.
Carey Jobe