That Claudian imitates Virgil's Georgics in the De raptu Proserpinae is well known. Most of his allusions are restricted to Golden Age or Underworld imagery, largely from Books 1, 2, and 4. However, one imitation of the third Georgic that appears not to have been noted previously occurs at De raptu Proserpinae 1.82. The context is Claudian's famous description of Pluto enthroned:
ipse rudi fultus solio nigraque uerendus
maiestate sedet: squalent inmania foedo
sceptra situ; sublime caput maestissima nubes
asperat et dirae riget inclementia formae;
terrorem dolor augebat. (De raptu Proserpinae 1.79–83)
I argue that this recalls the following passage in Virgil:
optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aeui
prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis. (Georgics 3.66–8)
Inclementia occurs some twenty times in extant classical and late antique Latin verse. Claudian himself uses it three other times. None the less, the construction of Claudian's line makes it clear that the line from the
Georgics is being imitated here: the lines are metrically equivalent, and the sound-pattern and identical grammatical structure make the imitation unmistakable (¯˘˘ | et d¯rae r˘˘t inclementia ¯
x).