Enthusiasm for the muses and devotion to my poetic craft also disturb the silence at night. For I saw myself as if in the star-studded city of the heavens, producing verses at the feet of Jupiter. And in order to sustain this dream, the gods applauded what I spoke and a sacred crowd surrounded me in the sanctuary […]. Sleep can create nothing greater; and this lofty hall has shown the poet an assembly that is comparable to the heavenly gathering. The preface of the final poetic panegyric composed by Claudian (active c. 394–c. 404) at the turn of the fifth century features the author's daydream of performing before the gods. Imagining himself in a splendid, tall auditorium, Claudian invites readers to compare a fictional hall for deities with an actual performance space where poets read their works before audiences. This dream about a gathering of the gods is a commonplace from epic poetry in which Jupiter commands a celestial assembly, here used to advance the author's main agenda of praising the emperor Honorius and his earthly court. Claudian inspired subsequent generations of poets to produce works about the ruling emperors and the military elite; I draw particular attention here to the authors Flavius Merobaudes (active c. 432–c. 460) and Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489) who deployed the same epic tropes as Claudian. The verses by Claudian also offer tantalizing details about the real conditions in which poets presented their verse panegyrics before live audiences in Rome.