The topic of poem 29 by Claudius Claudianus, Magnes, appears to be peripheral with regard to the themes dear to the author. The exegesis of the text leads to remarkable results, both for the removal of concepts such as 'greater and lesser poetry', and for the advancement of knowledge about the art of Claudianus. More specifically, this paper highlights some new programmatic facets of the proem, by which the poet alludes to Virgil (both to text of the Aeneid and of the Georgics) and pays a literary homage – but a homage which tastes of aemulatio – to Lucretius.
