Iulius Valerius Polemius

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Iulius Valerius Alexander Polemius (* probably in Alexandria ) was an ancient writer; he lived in the late third century and / or the first half of the fourth century. He translated the Greek Alexander novel into Latin .

Life

Very little is known about the life of Valerius. Possibly he is identical with Flavius ​​Polemius , consul of the year 338. This assumption is based on the correspondence of the cognomen and the presumed lifetime; it is controversial in research. He was probably from Alexandria , Egypt, or at least lived there; Greek was his mother tongue, but he also had an excellent knowledge of Latin. He carried the title vir clarissimus , so he belonged to the senatorial class, and was not a Christian, but stood up for the old religion.

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Valerius translated the Greek novel of Alexander by Pseudo- Callisthenes , which he considered to be a work of Aesop , into Latin. His translation is entitled Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis ("Deeds of Macedonian Alexander"). It must have been created in the early forties of the 4th century at the latest, as it was already used for the Alexandri Itinerary , which was written on the occasion of the Persian campaign of the Roman emperor Constantius II (337–361) (and is hypothetically attributed to Valerius). The translation of the Alexander romance was probably written before 330, as Valerius did not top the then newly founded Constantinople in his list of the largest cities. A counter-argument assumes that the work is dedicated to Constantius II and therefore cannot be dated before 337, but the evidence for this assumption, which dates from the 17th century, is very doubtful; it is probably a misunderstanding.

Valerius translated freely and changed details; he made around 600 additions and changes to the text and around 60 omissions. Since he wanted to portray Alexander as the ideal ruler, he left out information from his Greek model that made the Macedonian king appear in an unfavorable light. He also withheld information about behavior that was religiously offensive from Valerius' point of view. His changes suggest certain beliefs in him; so he was evidently of the opinion that human fate was predetermined ( fatalism ). He rejected the deification of living people as barbaric. He divided his work into three books, which were titled Ortus , Actus and Obitus (Birth, Deeds, Death).

The reception of the complete version of the translation by Valerius was relatively low (only three complete manuscripts have survived). However, a short version ( epitome ) received a lot of attention in the Middle Ages . She contributed significantly to the spread of the Alexander legend.

literature

  • Hartmut Bohmhammel: Valerius' transmission of the Alexander story and its social tendencies. Diss. TU Berlin 2005, Berlin 2008.
  • Herwig Buntz: The German Alexander poetry of the Middle Ages . Metzler, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-476-10123-1
  • Peter Lebrecht Schmidt : Iulius Valerius Alexander Polemius, Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis. In: Reinhart Herzog (ed.): Restoration and renewal. The Latin literature from 284 to 374 AD (= Handbook of the Latin Literature of Antiquity , Volume 5). CH Beck, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-31863-0 , pp. 212-214

Web links

Remarks

  1. Bohmhammel p. 15f.
  2. Bohmhammel pp. 18-23, 158.
  3. Bohmhammel pp. 13-16.