When we read both Claudian’s panegyric for the 4th and the 6th consulship of Honorius and Rutilius Namatianus’ De reditu suo, it becomes very likely that, after the death of Theodosius, there has been a debate about the exact nature and status of the principate. Considering the passages involving the city of Rome and the “civic” ideal of the principate in Claudian’s poems, we try to show how Claudian and Stilicho tried to draw a renewed picture of the princeps and apply it to Honorius as a renewal of the optimus princeps according to the standards of Roman principate. But, when it is compared to both oriental discourses and practices, and Christian model of the princeps, Claudian’s attempt leads to a global failure that is documented by Rutilius’ ideological vision of Romanitas. As the emperor who is a devout Christian cannot completely assume the (partially religious) characters of the optimus princeps, the imperial model becomes in Rutilius’ poetry an optional part of the general idea of Romanitas, far less important than real link to Roman culture and social organization.