Late Antique Historiography

Caesars

Title(s):
  • Caesars
  • Historiae abbreviatae ab Augusto Octaviano, id est a fine Titi Livii usque ad consulatum decimum Constantii Augusti et Iuliani Caesaris tertium
    (Historiae abbreviatae ab Augusto Octaviano, id est a fine Titi Livii usque ad consulatum decimum Constantii Augusti et Iuliani Caesaris tertium, Abbreviated histories from Octavian Augustus, that is, from the end of Livy until the tenth consulate of Constantius Augustus and the third of Julian Caesar.)
  • Caesares
  • Liber de Caesaribus
Author:
Period covered:
Augustus-Constantius II
Language:
Latin
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Secular history (breviarium)
Remarks:
The work of Aurelius Victor is the last segment of the so-called Corpus Aurelianum, a tripartite compilation including also the Origin of the Roman people and On illustrious men of Rome. The publication of Victor's work in 360/361 provides the terminus post quem for the creation of the corpus, which supposedly was collected in the second half of the fourth century. None of the authors of the three works can be identified with the editor of the compilation.
Edition - Translation:
  • K. Gross-Albenhausen, M. Fuhrmann (1997) S. Aurelius Victor (Sammlung Tusculum). Düsseldorf.
  • F. Pichlmayr (1970) Sexti Aurelii Victoris Liber de Caesaribus: Praecedunt Origo gentis Romanae et Liber de viris illustribus orbis Romae, subsequitur Epitome de Caesaribus (Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana). Leipzig.
  • P. Dufraigne (1975) Aurélius Victor: Livre des Césars (Collection des Universités de France). Paris.
  • H.W. Bird (1994) Sextus Aurelius Victor (Translated texts for historians, 17). Liverpool.
  • M.A. Nickbakht, C. Scardino (2021) Aurelius Victor, Historiae abbreviatae. Kleine und Fragmentarische Historiker der Spätantike. Paderborn.
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • H.W. Bird (1974) Sextus Aurelius Victor: A historiographical study. Liverpool.
  • W. Den Boer (1972) Some minor Roman historians. Leiden: 18-113.
  • P.L. Schmidt (1989) '§537 Sextus Aurelius Victor: Historiae abbreviatae'. In: Restauration und Erneuerung: Die lateinische Literatur von 284 bis 374 n. Chr., ed. R. Herzog (Handbuch der lateinischen Literatur der Antike, 8.5). Munich: 198-201.