Flavius ​​Eutropius

The birthplace of Eutropius is not known, since almost all surviving information comes from Eutropius himself. Marcellus Empiricus connects him with Avsonii ^[1] , which hints at the possibility of origin from Bordeaux . A more popular modern point of view is that he is the nephew of the rhetoric of Akaki of Caesarea and therefore has an eastern origin ^[2] .

Under Emperor Constantius II, he served as magister epistularum . In 363, Eutropius participated in the campaign of Emperor Julian II to Persia ^[3] . Six years later, was the magister memoriae of the East of Emperor Valent . In the years 371/372, Eutropius served as proconsul of Asia. In the year 379, while at the court of Grazian , he visited Rome. In the years 379-381 he served as prefect of the Praetorian Illirik. In 387 he was consul along with Valentinian II . Nothing more is known about his career. Eutropius was a pagan.

Eutropius is the author of “The ” ( lat. Breviarium ab Urbe condita , also Breviarium historiae romanae ) - a brief history of Rome from the foundation until 364 . It consists of 10 "books", which in total occupy about 30 modern pages ^[4] .

The book was written in 369 or 370 for the education of the young emperor Valent II . The narration is simple, without stylistic embellishments and literary claims, with a minimum number of subordinate constructions, and is set out in Latin , not ancient Greek (which Valent did not know) ^{[5] [6]} . Eutropius omits political, economic and administrative details, describing primarily the military side of the emergence and preservation of the empire ^[7] .

The prototype of the first 6 books describing the period until the end of the republic was Titus Libya 's History from the Foundation of the City . The materials of other historians were also supposedly used: Polybius , Dionysius , Plutarch , Appian . Written as annals : they describe events in chronological order according to the main consuls ^[8] .

• Book I: from the founding of Rome (753 BC) to the victory of Camille over the Gauls in 390 BC e .;
• Book II: until the end of the first Punic War (241 BC);
• Book III: until the end of the Second Punic War (201 BC);
• Book IV: until the end of the Yugurtinsky war (104 BC);
• Book V: until the end of the dictatorship of Sulla (79 BC);
• Book VI: before the assassination of Caesar (44 BC).

The following 4 books are presented as biographies of emperors in the spirit of Suetonius : the origin of the emperor, his personality, main actions, death, duration of government and age at death, mention of deification ^[9] .

• Book VII: Transition to the Empire, Julia-Claudius (27-68) and Flavius (69-96);
• Book VIII: Antonins (96-192) and the North (193-265);
• Book IX: the end of the crisis of the III century and Diocletian (284-305);
• Book X: Dominus until the end of the reign of Emperor Jovian (365).

The Breviary describes events in a light favorable to the Senate : neglects Greek history, gives a negative image to Mary and Caesar, and a positive one to emperors approved by the Senate ^[10] . Eutropius is the only historian who systematically describes the procedure for the deification of emperors, carried out by the Senate and put them on the same level ^[11] .

The Breviarius was an immediate success: for example, around 380 years, 10 years after writing, it was translated into Greek by , and at the beginning of the 6th century a new translation of Lycius Capiton appeared ^[12] ; in the VIII century, Paul Deacon made this work the basis for his Roman history ^[13] , and from the IX – XIII centuries , 19 manuscripts of the text of Eutropius survived. In the years 1516 - 1979, a total of 23 editions were made.

• In the Collection Budé series: Eutrope . Abrégé d'histoire romaine. Texte établi et traduit par J. Hellegouarch. - LXXXV, 417 p.

Russian translations :

• Eutropia Reduction of Roman history to the time of Caesars Valent and Valentinian / Per. with lat. language S. Vorontsov. - M., 1759 . - 159 p. - 2nd ed. - M., 1779.
• In the XIX century it was published in Russia in Latin.
• Eutropium. A Brief History from the Foundation of the City = Breviarium ab Urbe condita: [trans. with lat. ] / Per. A.I. Donchenko // Roman historians of the IV century / Art. and comm. F.M. Vysokogo, A.I. Donchenko, M.L. Khorkova; Repl. ed. to. and. n M.A. Timofeev. - M .: ROSSPEN, 1997. - S. 5-73. - 414 p. - ISBN 5-86004-072-5 .
• Eutropium . Breviary from the base of the City / Transl. and approx. D.V. Kareeva, L.A. Samutkina. - St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 2001 . - 305 s. - (Ser .: "Ancient History"). - ISBN 5-89329-345-2
• Eutropium . A brief history from the founding of the City. - ... Direct Media, 2008. - 203 p. - ISBN 9785998916403
• Eutropium . A Brief History from the Foundation of the City / Transl. with lat., entry Art., comment. A.B. Egorova. (From the appendix of the original Latin text.) - St. Petersburg: Humanity. Acad., ( preparing to print ). - 224 p. - Repl., 84x108 / 32. - Circulation 2000 copies.

• Brown p . The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750. - Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. - 216 p. - ISBN 9780155976337 .
• Hellegouarc'h J. Abrégé d'histoire romaine. - Les Belles-Lettres, 1999 .-- LXXXV (85) p. - (CUF Latin). - ISBN 9782251014142 . (fr.)
• Jones AHM Eutropius 2 // Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire / AHM Jones , JR Martindale, J. Morris. - Cambridge University Press , 1971. - Vol. I: AD 260–395. - P. 317. - ISBN 0-521-07233-6 [2001 reprint].
• L'huillier M.-C. Le Bréviaire d'Eutrope: Stéphane Ratti, Les empereurs romains d'Auguste à Dioclétien dans le Bréviaire d'Eutrope. Les livres 7 à 9 du Bréviaire d'Eutrope: introduction, traduction et commentaire // Dialogues d'histoire ancienne. - 1997. - T. 23 , No. 1 . - S. 318-321 .
• Petit P. Histoire générale de l'Empire romain. - Seuil, 1974. - ISBN 2020026775 .
• Durov V.S. Artistic historiography of Ancient Rome. SPb., 1993.
• Durov V.S. History of Roman literature. SPb., 2000.
• The history of Roman literature. T. 2.M., 1962.
• Kareev D. V. Late Roman historiography before the challenge of time: Eutropius and his “Breviary from the Foundation of the City”. (Series "Antique Library. Research"). SPb .: Aletheia. 2004.250 pp. ISBN 5-89329-575-7

• Breviarius, Latin Original
• A. B. Egorov. "Breviarium" Eutropia, its sources and main characteristics
• A brief history from the founding of the City in Russian