No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
IV. The First Century A.D.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2016
Extract
‘The Roman historians subsequent to Livy’, pronounced Sir Ronald Syme, ‘have perished utterly.’ It is true that most of the historians who wrote in the century between Livy and Tacitus, whether well known (e.g. the elder Seneca and the elder Pliny) or less familiar (e.g. Servilius Nonianus and Fabius Rusticus), have survived only in fragments or not at all; but there are two exceptions, Velleius Paterculus and Curtius.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Classical Association 1997
References
Notes
1. Syme (1958), 358.
2. References to chapters 19–131 of Book 2 usually dispense with the book number. For a detailed study of Velleius’ career see Sumner (1970).
3. For the summary nature of Velleius’ work and its relative novelty see Woodman (1975), esp. 275–87. Note also Starr, R. J., ‘The scope and genre of Velleius’ history’, CQ 31 (1981), 162–74 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4. Woodman (1975), 273–5.
5. We lack the preface and his account of everything between the time of Romulus (1.8.4-6) and the battle of Pydna in 168 B.C. (1.9).
6. For this trend see Woodman (1977), 30–50; also above, pp. 32–3.
7. See Woodman, A. J., Hommages à M. Renard (Brussels, 1968), 1.785-99Google Scholar.
8. For this theme see RICH, 140–6.
9. See Woodman (1983), 287 s.v. Velleius Paterculus (c).
10. Sumner (1970), 279. (Fenestella was an antiquarian writer contemporary with Livy; his work survives only in fragments.) Syme, who took Pollio as his model and inspiration for The Roman Revolution (see pp. vii-viii, 6–7), valued Sallust, Pollio and especially Tacitus for their experience of political affairs: see e.g. Syme (1939), 5 and 420, and esp. ‘The senator as historian’ in Ten Studies in Tacitus (Oxford, 1970), 1–10. Syme’s view thus has something in common with that of Polybius, for whom practical experience was an important element in what he called ‘pragmatic history’: see Walbank (1972), 56 and 66–96.
11. For Syme see e.g. RP, 3.1090-1104; other exx. in Woodman (1975), 289 and RICH, 213 n. 34. An honourable exception is Sumner (1970).
12. See further RICH, 203–6. Tacitus’ point remains current today: ‘the selection of “good” news [is] propaganda . . . only “bad” news is objective’ (ironical letter in The Times, 30 April 1993).
13. See Woodman (1977), 245–8. On Sejanus see also below, pp. 103–8.
14. See Woodman (1977), 272–6.
15. Yet Syme himself had warned that ‘It is the mark of political literature under the Empire . . . that it should not carry its meaning on its face’ (1958, 29).
16. See RP, 3.1434 n. 90.
17. See Kaster (1995), 336–7.
18. This digression is drawn upon by Curtius: see the evidence reported by Moore, P., Q. Curtius Rufus’ Histońae Alexandri Magni: a Study in Rhetorical Historiography (Diss. Oxford, 1994), 198–206 Google Scholar.
19. See e.g. Woodman (1983), 214–15 with further references.
20. The transmitted text reads qua tune abundabat, which Zarotus corrected to abundabant; but quae is perhaps supported by Liv. 23.49.12 (see p. 86).
21. The description begins at 4.2.1 and has been analysed by Rutz, W., ‘Zur Erzählungskunst des Q. Curtius Rufus: Die Belagerung von Tyrus’, Hermes 95 (1965), 570-82Google Scholar.
22. Note, however, that the phrase was used earlier (though differently) by Cicero (Dom. 43), who also has memoria posteritatis thrice (Rab. Post. 16, Mil. 97, Phil. 9.7).
23. si famae credimus is at Liv. 1.49.9, but similar phraseology also appears elsewhere (e.g. Luc. 3.220 famae si creditur, again of the Phoenicians and writing).
24. See Woodman (1977), 241 and 142–3 respectively.
25. It is, however, worth noting that Roma Renata Renascens appears on the coinage of (among others) Galba: see OLD renascor la.
26. There is also an obituary notice for Persepolis at 5.7.8-9.