In 1915 a dispute over the meaning and interpretation of lines 3–4 of this poem prompted Ernst Hohl not only to propose reading ‘quo … locos’ instead of ‘quae … loca’ (a conjecture which he rightly abandoned in his edition of the Historia Augusta for the Teubner series in 1927) but also to question whether the poem really was composed by Hadrian.

The text of Claudian has received little serious attention since the great edition of Theodor Birt in 1892 (MGH Auct. Ant. x). The Teubner edition of the following year is by a pupil of Birt, J. Koch, and, though it is a handy text with a useful preface, it cannot really be used independently of Birt. After that, apart from two not very substantial contributions by J. P. Postgate (C.Q. iv [1910], 257–62)

In an otherwise convincing article Mr. T. P. Wiseman argues that this passage ‘seems to mean (a) that L. Memmius and Q. Pompeius were principes, i.e. outstanding orators, and (b) that they were not among those who spoke in their own defence in 90 B.C.’. But he rightly refuses to believe that Cicero can have intended this, since, apart from other considerations, it is clear from Cicero's previous references to Memmius and Pompeius that he did not consider them to be outstanding orators.