MINOR LATIN HISTORIANS of the FOURTH CENTURY A.D. Giorgio Bonamente Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus and the Anonymous Author
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CHAPTER THREE MINOR LATIN HISTORIANS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY A.D. Giorgio Bonamente Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus and the anonymous author of Epitome de Caesaribus represent in their entirety an emblematic cul- tural phenomenon of an era during which the Roman Empire expe- rienced its last political, administrative and cultural revival: this revival was promoted by Diocletian’s and Constantine’s reforms and pur- sued for about half a century until the end of the reign of Theodosius the Great. Our authors’ short works are united by their perspective and purpose: the perspective embraces the long history of Rome, in the case of Eutropius and Festus from its foundation right up to their days, in the case of Aurelius Victor and the Epitome from the beginning of the reign of Augustus; the purpose is to propose the continuity of the history of Rome in its ethical values, political insti- tutions and military prestige as a model for the state of the empire and its future security. Even though the four works have common characteristics and res- onant links, they do have different content and structure and must therefore be viewed in their historical context, which sees the first three works authored in the sixth and seventh decade of the fourth century A.D., whereas the fourth work was written after the death of Theodosius the Great in 395; the fact that the fourth work is still mostly considered to be an anonymous work sets clear limits to any unitary valuation. Actually this small canon of minor Latin historians of the fourth century results just from the fact that they represent the only texts handed down to us; this historiographic production includes the lost Annales of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus. It also needs to be borne in mind that, in a way, the Origo Constantini imperatoris has to be excluded without dispute for it covers only a short period;1 on the 1 Mazzarino 1966, p. 227. 86 giorgio bonamente other hand, the complex Origo gentis Romanae (Aurelius Victor’s text is the sole portion being considered here) has contents and purposes strongly analogous to the breviaries, with whom they share the aim of presenting an universal history of the Roman world which dates back to the Age of Saturn.2 It is noteworthy that the four breviaries which are left represent, together with Ammianus Marcellinus, the pagan Latin historiogra- phy of the fourth century. They provide evidence for the contem- porary and vivid confrontation between Roman culture and Christianity as much as they reflect their views on the past from the perspective of the specific problems of the fourth century: the renewed pressure by the Persians on the eastern border, the loss of identity of the Senate under the new regime of Diocletian, the generally increasing problems caused by the barbarians and the importance of the armed forces. Certainly that historiography was not the archaic attempt to recover the Roman traditionalism embodied in the Roman Senate, the pres- tige of political patterns and classical culture.3 Such archaic attempts had been made without success by Julian the Apostate, Virius Nicomachus Flavianus, and the usurper Eugenius, to mention only the two most significant. The fourth century historiography was rather the expression of a reflective desire to bring the past back to life; it was the axiom for that idealistic programme which Aurelius Symmachus synthesised in his grief-stricken appeal to render the altar of the god- dess Victoria to the Senate with the sententious expression consuetu- dinis amor magnus est.4 It is within the senatorial class which had been transformed by Constantine’s reforms, a class clearly divided between a senate in Rome and another in Constantinople5 and by now composed also of men who progressed in their political careers thanks to their cul- ture, that we find Aurelius Victor, Eutropius and Festus. They were united by the need to offer an easy-to-read compendium, such as the breviarium, in order to corroborate the values and prestige of the Roman tradition in its widest acceptance of pragmatic history, cul- ture and religion. They were all three high court dignitaries who 2 Momigliano 1958, pp. 4ff. 3 Bloch 1963, pp. 214ff. 4 Symm. Relat. 3,4. 5 Chastagnol 1992, p. 261..