Hide
Show all
Email this article 
Early Career of Aurelius Victor and Testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus (Amm. 21.10.6)
Abstract
Our knowledge on Aurelius Victor’s career is very limited. In the year 360, Julian appointed him as governor of Pannonia. According to H.W. Bird’s hypothesis, Aurelius Victor may have been employed in the imperial administration some time earlier and served as a notary. Although it has no verifiable foundation in ancient sources, this hypothesis has been widely accepted. I would like to call attention to the clues that could serve as arguments against the hypothetical notarial office held by Aurelius Victor. The present text is based on an analysis of how Ammianus Marcellinus portrays his characters. The analysis has demonstrated that Aurelius Victor was not very likely to have served as an imperial notary. If someone was employed in the echelons of the imperial administration, Ammianus Marcellinus would reference that fact. Holding the office of imperial notary is something that is mentioned in his work on many occasions, regardless of whether it was justified by the narrative’s demands or not. The phrase scriptorem historicum is such an unusual manner of describing a person that, as could be concluded, it is quite likely that Ammianus Marcellinus had no other idea how to define Aurelius Victor, and therefore I reject H.W. Bird’s hypothesis.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDF (Język Polski)References
Wykaz skrótów zastosowanych w tekście
Amm. – Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum, wyd. V. Gardthausen, Stuttgart 1967 (Bibliotheca Tauberiana); J.C. Rolfe, London 1935–1940 (Loeb); J. Fontaine, Paris 1968–1999 (Les Belles Lettres).
Aur. Vict. Caes – Aurelius Victor, Liber de cesaribus, wyd. F. Pichlmayer, popr. R. Gründer, Leipzig 1970 (Bibliotheca Teubneriana); P. Dufraigne, Paris 1975 (Les Belles Lettres).
Cedrenus – Georgii Cedreni Historiarum compendium, wyd. I. Bekker, PG, Band 121–122, Paris 1884–1889.
CIL – Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.
Eun. – Eunapius, Historiae, K. Müller, Fragmenta Historicum Graecum, t. 4, Paris 1870.
Eun. V. Soph. – Eunapius, Vitae sophistarum, wyd. R. Goulet, Paris 2014 (Les Belles Lettres); W.C. Wright, Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists. Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists, London 1921.
Iul. Ep. – Iulianus, Epistulae, wyd. J. Bidez, G. Rochefort, Ch. Lacombrade, Julien: Œuvres complètes, Paris 1924–1964 (Les Belles Lettres).
Lib. Ep. – Libanius, Epistulae, wyd. R. Foerster, Leipzig 1903–1927 (Bibliotheca Tauberiana); B. Cabouret, Paris 2000 (Les Belles Lettres).
Lib. Or. – Libanius, Orationes, wyd. R. Foerster, Leipzig 1903–1927 (Bibliotheca Tauberiana).
Philostorg – Philostorgius, Historia Ecclesiastica, wyd. J. Bidez, rev. F. Winkelmann, GCS, Berlin 1981.
Phot. Cod. – Photius, Bibliotheca, wyd. Photius, Bibliothèque, t. 1–9, Paris 1959–1991 (Les Belles Lettres).
Soc. Hist. Eccl. – Socrates Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica, wyd. G.C. Hansen, Sokrates: Kirchengeschichte, Berlin 1995; P. Périchon, P. Maraval, Socrate de Constantinople, Histoire ecclésiastique, Paris 2004–2007 (Sources chrétiennes).
Suda – Suidae Lexicon, Teubner, Leipzig 1928–1938.
TLL – Thesaurus Linguae Latinae.
Zon. – Ioannis Zonarae epitome historiarum, wyd. L. Dindorf, Teubner, Leipzig 1868–1875.
Zos. Hist. – Zosimos, Historia Nova, wyd. L. Mendelssohn, Leipzig 1867 (Bibliotheca Tauberiana); F. Paschoud, Paris 1971–1989 (Les Belles Lettres).
Opracowania
Bird H.W., A Reconstruction of the Life and Career of S. Aurelius Victor, „The Classical Journal” 1975, 70.
Bird H.W., Aurelius Victor: De Caesaribus. Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by H.W. Bird, Liverpool 1994.
Bird H.W., Julian and Aurelius Victor, „Latomus” 1996, 55.
Bird H.W., Sextus Aurelius Victor. A Historiographical Study, Windsor 1984.
Boeft J. den, Hengst D. den, Teitler H.C., Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXI, Groningen 1987.
Boeft J. den, Drijvers J.W., Hengst D. den, Teitler H.C., Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXIX, Leiden–Boston 2013.
Boer W. den, Some Minor Roman Historians, Leiden 1972.
Chastagnol A., Les Fastes de la Préfecture de Rome au Bas-Empire, Paris 1962.
Matthews J., The Roman Empire of Ammianus, Ann Arbor 2007.
Matthews J., Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court A.D. 364–425, Oxford 1975.
Nehring P., Brewiaria dziejów rzymskich, Warszawa 2010.
Nixon C.E.V., Aurelius Victor and Julian, „Classical Philology” 1991, 86.
Paschoud F., Jovien ou Julien? À propos du Fragment 40 Müller de l’oeuvre historique d’Eunape, w: Eunape, Olympiodore, Zosime. Scripta minora, red. F. Paschoud, Bari 2006.
Szidat J., Historischer Kommentar zu Ammianus Marcellinus Buch XX–XXI, Stuttgart 1996.
Szidat J., Zur Ankunft Iulians in Sirmium 361 N. Chr. auf seinem Zug gegen Constantius II, „Historia” 1975, 24.
Zawadzki T., Les procès politiques de l’an 371/372 (Amm. Marc. XXIX 1,29–33; Eunapius, Vitae Soph. VII 6,3; D. 480), w: Labor Omnibus Unus. Gerold Walser zum 70. Geburtstag dargebracht von Freunden, Kollegen und Schülern, red. H.E. Herzig, R. Frei-Stolba, Stuttgart 1989.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/rh.2018.46.71-84
Date of publication: 2019-04-25 10:00:27
Date of submission: 2017-10-31 09:38:10
Statistics
Indicators
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2019 Robert Sławomir Suski
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.