Sextus_Aurelius_Victor

Aurelius Victor

Aurelius Victor

4th century Roman historian and politician

Sextus Aurelius Victor (c. 320 – c. 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a short history of imperial Rome, entitled De Caesaribus and covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. The work was published in 361. Under the emperor Julian (361-363), Victor served as governor of Pannonia Secunda; in 389 he became praefectus urbi (urban prefect), senior imperial official in Rome.[1]

Works

Four small historical works have been ascribed to him, although only his authorship of De Caesaribus is securely established:

  1. Origo Gentis Romanae
  2. De Viris Illustribus Romae
  3. De Caesaribus (for which Aurelius Victor used the Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte)
  4. Epitome de Caesaribus (attributed)

The four have generally been published together under the name Historia Romana. The second was first printed at Naples about 1472, in 4to, under the name of Pliny the Younger, and the fourth in Strasbourg in 1505.[2]

The first edition of all four books was that of Andreas Schott (8 volumes, Antwerp, 1579). A recent edition of the De Caesaribus is by Pierre Dufraigne (Collection Budé, 1975).

See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    Ammianus Marcellinus, xxi.10.
  2. [2]
    Chisholm 1911.

References

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Victor, Sextus Aurelius". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • H.W. Bird (1994) Aurelius Victor: De Caesaribus. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
  • Bird, H. W. (1984). Sextus Aurelius Victor: A Historiographical Study. Liverpool: Francis Cairns. ISBN 978-0-9052-0521-2.
  • W. den Boer (1972) Some Minor Roman Historians. Leiden: Brill.
  • P. Dufraigne (1975) Aurelius Victor: Livre de Cesars. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
  • D. Rohrbacher (2002) The Historians of Late Antiquity. London: Routledge.
  • Stover, Justin; Woudhuysen, George (2023). The lost history of Sextus Aurelius Victor. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474492874. (Open Access).
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