Metz epitome

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The Metzer Epitome is a late antique historical work dedicated to the life of Alexander the Great .

The author of the epitome in Latin , a compilation of older sources on Alexander, is unknown. He lived in the 4th century. The only manuscript surviving in modern times, which was made in the 10th century, was in Metz , from which the name of the epitome comes. It was destroyed in the Second World War in 1944, but at that time there were already two editions of the text from 1886 and 1901 as well as a copy from 1841 in Paris.

The work has not survived in its entirety, the surviving parts begin with the death of King Dareios and end during Alexander's Indian campaign . In the Metz manuscript, the epitome was preceded by a work usually referred to as Liber de morte testamentoque Alexandri Magni , which stands in the tradition of the Alexander romance and deals with the last days of Alexander. It is a Latin translation of a Greek script. Possibly this translation comes from the author of the epitome; in this case he added it to his compilation as a second book.

The reliability of the Metz epitome is doubtful in parts, but it offers valuable material, some of which cannot be found anywhere else. There are similarities with the works of Quintus Curtius Rufus and the Philippian story of Pompeius Trogus (only known in the summary of Junianus Justinus ), which is why the epitome is more likely to be assigned to the so-called Vulgate tradition (see Alexander historian ). Christian elements are missing in the representation of the material.

output

  • Peter Hermann Thomas (Ed.): Incerti auctoris epitoma rerum gestarum Alexandri Magni cum libro de morte testamentoque Alexandri . 2nd Edition. Teubner, Leipzig 1966.

literature

  • Elizabeth J. Baynham: An introduction to the Metz epitome: Its traditions and value . In: Antichthon 29, 1995, pp. 60-77.
  • Albert Brian Bosworth: Ptolemy and the Will of Alexander . In: Albert B. Bosworth, Elizabeth J. Baynham (Eds.): Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction . Oxford 2000, pp. 207-241
  • Peter Lebrecht Schmidt : Alexandri Magni Macedonis Epitoma rerum gestarum (Metzer Alexander epitome). 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 , p. 215 f. (and p. 217 on De morte testamentoque Alexandri Magni )