Aurelius Victor Explained

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.

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

• Sirmium
• Sremska Mitrovica
• Syrmia
• Tetrarchy
• Praetorian prefecture
• Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum
• Roman provinces
• Roman Empire

References

• • H.W. Bird (1994) Aurelius Victor: De Caesaribus. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
• Book: Bird, H. W. . 1984 . Sextus Aurelius Victor: A Historiographical Study . Francis Cairns . Liverpool . 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.
• Book: Nickbakht. Mehran A.. Scardino. Carlo. Aurelius Victor, Historiae Abbreviatae. Kleine und fragmentarische Historiker der Spätantike. B2. Brill Schöningh. Paderborn. 2021. 978-3-506-70275-3.
• D. Rohrbacher (2002) The Historians of Late Antiquity. London: Routledge.
• Book: Stover . Justin . Woudhuysen . George . The lost history of Sextus Aurelius Victor . 2023 . Edinburgh University Press . Edinburgh . 9781474492874. (Open Access).

External links

• Encyclopedia: AURELIUS VICTOR . Chaumont . M.L. . http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aurelius-victor-sextus-born-in-africa-ca . Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 1 . 28–29 . 1987 .
• Works by Aurelius Victor in thelatinlibrary.com (Latin text)
• (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)

Notes and References

1. [Ammianus Marcellinus]