Asinius quadratus

Asinius Quadratus was a Roman historian who wrote in Greek . He lived at the time of the imperial crisis of the 3rd century .

Life

Asinius Quadratus may have come from an Italian senatorial family . Whether he can be equated with the undated inscription from Olympia , C. Asinius Quadratus, proconsul of the province of Achaea , or the consular C. Asinius Protimus Quadratus, is disputed in research and can hardly be clarified.

Works

Asinius Quadratus wrote at least two historical works. Like most historiographical writings from the time of the imperial crisis of the 3rd century, these are almost completely lost today. Only a few brief fragments have survived as quotations from later authors.

His main work apparently represented a 1000-year history (Chilieteris) in 15 books, with which he celebrated the millennium of the founding of the city of Rome and which perhaps extended to 248. The work was supposed to compete with the extensive historical work of Cassius Dio , who was a contemporary of Quadratus. The fragments preserved allow only a few concrete statements, but the historical work seems to have dealt primarily with the history of the republic and only described the imperial era in a condensed manner.

Furthermore, Quadratus wrote a book about the wars of Rome against the Parthians in 9 books ( Parthika ). Maybe he was from the under Gordian III. inspired by the newly erupted war against the Sassanid Empire , but much remains uncertain. The fragments (for the Parthika , especially in Stephanos of Byzantium, very brief information handed down) do not allow a detailed insight, so that the period and content treated are quite speculative.

In some research it is assumed that Asinius Quadratus wrote a third script ( Germanika ), which described the Roman-Germanic struggles (in the 2nd / 3rd century) and was interpreted ethnographically (like the Parthika ). This is sometimes inferred from a fragment handed down by Agathias . Such a work cannot be completely ruled out, but the statement made by Agathias can also refer to a passage in the 1000-year history and not necessarily to a separate script.

reception

The works of Asinius seem to have been quite popular in the subsequent period, because he is mentioned in the Historia Augusta (around 400), by Zosimos , Agathias and Euagrios Scholastikos . Zosimos was probably given the material for the passage in question through Olympiodorus of Thebes , while Euagrios probably had at least knowledge of the author through Eustathios of Epiphaneia .

Text editions and translations

The Fragments of the Greek Historians No. 97 and Brill's New Jacoby No. 97 (with English translation, commentary and biographical sketch by Michael Meckler)
The Fragments of the Roman Historians No. 102 (with English translation and commentary)
Bruno Bleckmann , Jonathan Gross: Historians of the Imperial Crisis of the 3rd Century I ( Small and fragmentary historians of late antiquity ). Paderborn 2016, ISBN 978-3-506-78490-2 , pp. 3–65.

literature

Hartwin Brandt : The Historia Augusta, Philostrat and Asinius Quadratus . In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 104, 1994, pp. 78–80 ( online; PDF; 30 kB ).
Udo Hartmann : The writing of history . In: Klaus-Peter Johne (Ed.): The time of the soldiers' emperors . Volume 2. Berlin 2008, pp. 893ff.
Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, p. 27ff. and p. 85ff.
Giuseppe Zecchini: Asinio Quadrato storico di Filippo l'Arabo . In: Rise and Fall of the Roman World . Volume II.34.4. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-015699-7 , pp. 2999-3021.

Remarks

↑ Udo Hartmann: The historiography . In: Klaus-Peter Johne (Ed.): The time of the soldiers' emperors . Vol. 2, Berlin 2008, here: p. 898f. with note 20.
↑ Udo Hartmann: The historiography . In: Klaus-Peter Johne (Ed.): The time of the soldiers' emperors . Vol. 2, Berlin 2008, here: p. 900.
↑ See the attempt at reconstruction in Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, p. 35f.
^ Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, pp. 85-87.
↑ Agathias, Historien I 6.
^ Discussion with Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, pp. 88-91.
↑ Zosimos 5:27.
↑ See Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, p. 37f.

personal data
SURNAME	Asinius quadratus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Quadratus, Gaius Asinius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Roman historian
DATE OF BIRTH	2nd century or 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH	3rd century or 4th century

[1] Udo Hartmann: The historiography . In: Klaus-Peter Johne (Ed.): The time of the soldiers' emperors . Vol. 2, Berlin 2008, here: p. 898f. with note 20.

[2] Udo Hartmann: The historiography . In: Klaus-Peter Johne (Ed.): The time of the soldiers' emperors . Vol. 2, Berlin 2008, here: p. 900.

[3] See the attempt at reconstruction in Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, p. 35f.

[4] Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, pp. 85-87.

[5] Agathias, Historien I 6.

[6] Discussion with Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, pp. 88-91.

[7] Zosimos 5:27.

[8] See Pawel Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, p. 37f.