Note testuali alla Laus Serenae di Claudiano ( carm. min . 30, vv. 37, 38, 205 b, 214)

This article examines four textual problems in the panegyric that Claudian dedicated to Serena, the wife of Stilicho and niece of the Emperor Theodosius. The cases under consideration concern the choice between the variants hoc , haec , and te (v. 37), between nomen and numen (v. 38), and between lumina and limina (v. 214); the question of the authenticity of v. 205 b is also addressed. Although the Laus Serenae is included in the collection of the carmina minora , it presents itself as a proper imperial panegyric addressed to a woman and contains important ideological messages. Starting from the issues raised by the textual tradition, this article aims to highlight the poet’s attention to conveying, with varying degrees of explicitness, some of these propagandistic messages: Serena’s royal lineage, Stilicho’s role as the sole guarantor of the Empire’s salvation, Serena’s virtue, and the heroic and martial image of Stilicho. These ideas appear to be conveyed through deliberate stylistic devices such as metapoetic allusions, wordplays, and correspondences with earlier texts.