In Eutropium

Claudian claims that Eutropius spent his early years as a catamite, a type of prepubescent male companion in a pederastic relationship in ancient Rome.

The poem then discusses his ascent to power, portraying the actions of Eutropius as a ruler, including his campaign in Armenia, as cruel and corrupt.

Following this speech, due to their disgust at Eutropius, the god Mars and his sister Bellona incite the Greuthungi to revolt.

[…] It is for deeds like this that Eutropius demands this year of office, to ensure that by his efforts alone he leaves nothing not dishonored, ruining the army as its general, the court as their judge, the imperial fasti as a consul."

Claudian claimed that an Assyrian queen known as Semiramis invented the practice of castration to disguise her sex by surrounding herself with effeminate men.

Within the poem, Claudian has Roma compare Eutropius to Pothinus, an ancient Ptolemaic eunuch responsible for the assassination of Roman general Pompey the Great.

In another section of the poem, Claudian compared the regret the people of the Eastern Empire supposedly felt at letting themselves be ruled over by a slave to the myth of Agave.

"[4]: 150–151 He critiques Eutropius for his important role in the military of the Eastern Empire, considering him too effeminate to run an army, claiming that he should have taken up spinning instead.

Claudian writes that Mars addressed Bellona, demanding that they work towards "curing the East of effeminacy" and praising a Western Roman general named Stilicho for protecting and upholding the power and strength of Rome, keeping it "unsullied by an unheard of crime" as he was "heedful of the empire and of the character and morals of a past age."

Following this conversation, Bellona heads to meet Tribigild, the leader of a tribe known as the Greuthungi, whilst disguised as his wife.

He states that the people of the Eastern Empire look to him as they "look as to a star amid this universal shipwreck of war; to him innocent and guilty alike address their prayers."

Claudian describes the goddess Aurora traveling to Italy, grasping Stilicho's "victorious hand" and asking him to take action against Eutropius.