Aurelius Victor

Base of statue dedicated to Theodosius by Sextus Aurelius Victor (CIL 6.1186)

Sextus Aurelius Victor (Template:Circa 320 – Template:Circa 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a now-lost monumental history of imperial Rome covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II.<ref name=Stover>Template:Cite journal</ref> Under the emperor Julian (361-363), Victor served as governor of Pannonia Secunda in 361;<ref name=Bird>Template:Cite journal</ref> in 389 he became praefectus urbi (urban prefect), senior imperial official in Rome.<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, xxi.10.</ref>

His surviving work, entitled De Caesaribus is a brief epitome of his history, and was originally titled in the two surviving manuscripts {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. The work was published in 361.

Aurelius was born to a poor family in North Africa to an uneducated father. He was educated, first at Carthage and then at Rome. He apparently composed his history getween 358 and 360.<ref name=Bird /> Following the publication his reputation grew enough that Julian erected a bronze status of him in Naissus.<ref name=Stover />

Aurelius survived the death of the pagan Julian into the reign of the fiercely anti-pagan Theodosius I (347–395). It appears he became consul in 369, and suffect consul between 370 and 378. In 388 or 389, Theodosius appointed Aurelius urban prefect.<ref name=Bird />

Enmannsche KaisergeschichteEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In 1884, German scholar Alexander Enmann posited a hypothetical, lost manuscript to explain the similarities among Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, the author of the Historia Augusta, and others.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp Recently, however, this source has been suggested to be in fact the lost history of Aurelius Victor, of which his surviving works are only epitomes.<ref name=Stover />

Surviving worksEdit

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

Origo Gentis Romanae
De Viris Illustribus Romae
De Caesaribus {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
Epitome de Caesaribus {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (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.Template:Sfn

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).

NotesEdit

Template:Reflist

ReferencesEdit

{{#if: |

   |{{#ifeq: Victor, Sextus Aurelius |
                |{{#ifeq: |
                             |File:PD-icon.svg 
                             |File:Wikisource-logo.svg 
                           }}
                |File:Wikisource-logo.svg 
               }}
  }}{{#ifeq:  |
   |{{#ifeq:  |
                                    |This article
                                    |One or more of the preceding sentences
                                   }} incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 
  }}{{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite EB1911
   |_exclude=footnote, inline, noicon, no-icon, noprescript, no-prescript, _debug

   | noicon=1
  }}{{#ifeq:  ||}}

H.W. Bird (1994) Aurelius Victor: De Caesaribus. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Template:Cite book
W. den Boer (1972) Some Minor Roman Historians. Leiden: Brill.
P. Dufraigne (1975) Aurelius Victor: Livre de Cesars. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Template:Cite book
D. Rohrbacher (2002) The Historians of Late Antiquity. London: Routledge.
Template:Cite book (Open Access).

External linksEdit

Template:Wikisourcelang

Template:Cite encyclopedia
Works by Aurelius Victor in thelatinlibrary.com (Latin text)
Template:Usurped (Latin, English and French texts)
Sexti Aurelii Victoris quae vulgo habentur scripta historica, Friedrich Schroeter (ed.), 2 voll., Lipsiae, sumptibus Augusti Lehnholdi, 1829-31 (contains Origo and De viris illustribus).
Sexti Aurelii Victoris de caesaribus liber, Franciscus Pichlmayr (ed.), Monachii, typos curavit F. Straub, 1892.
Sexti Aurelii Victoris historia romana, Lipsiae, sumptibus succ. Ottonis Holtze, 1892 (contains the opera omnia).
Sexti Aurelii Victoris historia romana, Th. Chr. Harlesii (ed.), 2 voll., Londini, curante et imprimente A. J. Valpy, 1829: vol. 1, vol. 2 (contains the opera omnia).
Liber de Caesaribus (Latin text and German translation)

Template:Authority control