La dualidad antitética en In Rufinum de Claudiano

After Theodosius died in 395 AD, the Roman Empire was permanently divided between the Pars Occidens – under Honorius and his regent Stilicho – and the Pars Oriens – ruled by Arcadius and his minister Rufinus. In this context, Claudian arrived at the western court and, at Stilicho’s request, composed In Rufinum (396-397 AD), an epic invective poem that recounts Rufinus’ rise, confrontation, and death. This paper aims to demonstrate how the poem, through a structure that responds to antithetical duality, represents the crisis of the empire and configures a poetic universe in which reality and fiction are intertwined by dividing the world between the darkness of the underworld and heroic luminosity. In this regard, we will analyse, on the one hand, the representation of Hades as an overwhelming force that bursts onto the earth’s surface through Rufinus – Discordia incarnate – and the barbarians; on the other hand, the configuration of Stilicho as the luminous hero capable of restoring Concordia to the imperial territory.