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Three Notes On The Vita Probi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Timothy D. Barnes
Timothy D. Barnes
Affiliation:
The Queen's College, Oxford
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Extract

In 1883 Alexander Enmann demonstrated the existence of ‘eine verlorene Geschichte der romischen Kaiser’. Not all of his arguments or conclusions were valid, but one fundamental postulate is undeniable: Aurelius Victor in 359/60 and Eutropius a decade later independently used a common source, a lost Kaiser geschichte of relatively brief compass. This lost work (it ought now to be clear) went down to the death of Constantine in 337, and traces of it can also be discovered in other writings of the late fourth century: in Festus’ Breviarium, in Jerome's revision of Eusebius’ Chronicle, in the Epitome de Caesaribus—and in the HA. If the HA used the Kaisergeschichte, its composition postdates 337— as Otto Seeck stated plainly in 1890.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , May 1970 , pp. 198 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 198 note 1 Philologus, , Supp. iv (1884), 335 ff.Google Scholar

page 198 note 2 Cf. Hohl, E., Bursians Jahresbericht, cclvi (1937), 147.Google Scholar

page 198 note 3 J.R.S. lviii (1968),265.Google Scholar

page 198 note 4 Cf. ‘The lost Kaisergeschichte and the Latin historical tradition’, to appear in the volume Historia-Augusta-Colloquium Bonn 1968. It is there argued that Carus 8. I and the factual framework of the Vita Alexandri are derived from the Kaisergeschichte.

page 198 note 5 Jahrbücher für classische Philologie, cxli (1890), 638.Google Scholar

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page 199 note 1 Cf. Syme, R., Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (1968), 98–9.Google Scholar

page 199 note 2 The reason is obvious and simple. In this pointed form, the sentiment is appropriate only for the writer of a breviarium—a literary genre which hardly began before Eutropius. But Eutropius was unpolemical: ’res Romanas … brevi narratione collegi strictim … ut tranquillitatis tuae possit mens divina laetari …‘ (praef.).

page 199 note 3 Momigliano, A., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (1963), 86.Google Scholar

page 199 note 4 Magie, D., Loeb Classical Library, Scriptores Historiae Augustae, iii (1932), 93, avoids the difficulty by taking ‘fides’ as accuracy of translation. That is very forced: the natural run of the words is for ‘ita posui ut fidem servarem’ (not ‘translates ita’) to cohere together. In which case, the author repeats himself, awkwardly.Google Scholar

page 200 note 1 Dannhäuser, E., Untersuchungen zur Ge-schichte des Kaisers Probus(276–282) (Diss. Jena, 1909), 43 ff.;Google ScholarHomo, L., Rev. hist, cxxxviii (1921), 40 ff.Google ScholarVitucci, G., L'imperatore Probo (1952), 87 ff.Google Scholar, wisely displayed greater scepticism.

page 201 note 1 Hermes xxiv (1889), 337 ff.Google Scholar Mommsen cited Prob. 13. 1 twice, as genuine evidence: Römiscnes Staatsrecht ii3 (1887), 254, 914–15.Google Scholar

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page 201 note 4 The published photograph (Akte, Plate I) clearly shows a horizontal stroke at the bottom of the disputed letter.

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page 202 note 1 Gr. Chr. Schr. xlvii. 224.

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page 202 note 3 Enmann, , op. cit. 392–3: ‘dass in Britannien je weinbau getrieben worden sei, hat noch kein sterblicher gesehen, man müsste denn wie der Londoner Cockney glauben, dass Port und Claret auf dem boden Albions wilchsen’.Google Scholar

page 202 note 4 Statius, , Silvae 4. 3. 11–12.Google Scholar

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page 202 note 6 Carus-Wilson, E. M., Bull. Inst. Hist. Res. xxi (1946–1948), 145 ff. And, for a later period, note Parliamentary Debates, Standing Committees, Session 1967/68, i: Finance Bill, cols. 271–2 (6 May 1968).Google Scholar

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page 202 note 9 Cf. P.I.R.2 B 146.

page 202 note 10 Note also Prob. 18. 5.

page 202 note 11 Collingwood, R. G., An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome (ed. T., Frank), iii (1937), 78;Google Scholar J. J. van Nostrand, ibid. 217; Frere, op. cit. 293

page 203 note 1 Cf. Alex. 26. 9. Chastagnol, A., Historia-Augusta-Colloquium Bonn 1966/67 (1968), 60Google Scholar, holds this passage copied from Eutropius, Brev. 8. 23—but fails to cite Jerome, Chronicle, under A.D. 232 (Gr. Chr. Schr. xlvii. 215).