Granius Licinianus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Granius Licinianus was a Roman historian and antiquarian. He probably lived around the middle of the 2nd century. Only a few fragments of his work have survived.

Until the middle of the 19th century, Granius Licinianus was known only through a few statements from ancient authors. In 1853, fragments of his Roman history (exact title could not be determined) were discovered in London on twelve palimpsest sheets of a manuscript in the British Museum (now the British Library , Additional 17 212). This codex originally contained a copy of the history of Granius Licinianus from the 5th century, which was overwritten in the 6th century with a Latin grammar treatise and in the 11th century with a Syrian translation of the homilies of John Chrysostom . The first editors suspected that Granius Licinianus with the in the 1st century BC. Chr. Living antiquarian and author of sacred works Granius Flaccus is identical, but most of today's researchers date him around the middle of the 2nd century AD. The reasons for this are, among other things, that a remark by Granius Licinianus the completion of the Temple of the Olympic Zeus in Athens through Emperor Hadrian might also assume that he considers Sallust to be a speaker rather than a historian, an assessment that agrees with that of the Frontonians. Nothing is known about the life of Granius Licinianus.

The annalistic designed Roman History of Granius Licinianus included more than 36 books, one of which fragments were retained in the aforementioned Palimpsest of the books 26, 28, 33, 35 and 36 (Belonging to the period from 163 to 78 v. Chr.). The story began with the founding of Rome or even earlier with Italian myths of origin. The end point of the work, which reached at least until Caesar's murder , cannot be determined. As a result of the chemical treatment of the parchment leaves, carried out in 1855 by Georg Heinrich Pertz and his son Karl for the purpose of deciphering, their writing was made so illegible that only the Pertzian transcription can be used for the original text. Important preserved fragments relate, among other things, to Antiochus IV , the battle of Arausio against the Cimbri (105 BC), which was devastating for the Romans , Gaius Marius ' return, civil war against Sulla's party and the siege of Rome (87 BC) as well as Sulla's stay in Greece.

That Granius Licinianus relied on Titus Livius seems quite likely; Assumptions about other sources like Sallust are extremely vague. The style is simple and dry and shows archaistic traces. Numerous anecdotes, oddities and antiquarian details are interspersed in the narrative. The author completely avoids speeches, geographical excursions, personal judgments, interpretations of political backgrounds and rhetorical coloring of his description.

The only reliable evidence of another writing by Granius Licinianus with the title Cenae suae is provided by the Virgil commentator Servius ; the assignment of further quotations is questionable. The title indicates a work in the form of learned table conversations. It was a collectaneen book in the style of the Noctes Atticae des Aulus Gellius . This showed the author's antiquarian interests , which were also recognizable in Roman history .

Text editions and translations

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Macrobius , Saturnalia 1, 16, 30; Solinus 2, 12; Servius , Commentary on Virgil , Aeneid 1, 737.
  2. ^ Servius to Virgil, Aeneid 1, 737.
personal data
SURNAME Granius Licinianus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Licinianus, Granius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman historian and antiquarian
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century or 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century or 3rd century