Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius was a Roman historian of the 1st century BC. Chr.

Life

According to a comment on the history of literature by Velleius Paterculus , Claudius Quadrigarius, like his colleagues Valerius Antias and Lucius Cornelius Sisenna, lived during the time of the Roman general Sulla , i.e. in the first half of the first century BC. In accordance with this statement by Velleius, the surviving fragments of his work, which, like most of the ancient Roman annals, have been lost extend to events from the time of Sulla's Roman civil war (latest fragment: 82 BC). From his Cognomen Quadrigarius one concludes that he did not belong to the patrician branch of the Claudians . Otherwise nothing is known of his life.

plant

The title of the work by Claudius Quadrigarius fluctuates in the ancient quotations, similar to Valerius Antias, between annales and historiae . It comprised at least 23 books, but did not begin, like most other annals, with the legendary early Roman history, but only with the conquest of Rome by the Gauls (around 390 BC). Claudius Quadrigarius probably believed that he could not tell the earlier times, since the Gauls had destroyed all documents at that time. The historical material was distributed in Claudius' work in such a way that in the 1st book the Samnite Wars (up to 304 BC), in the 3rd book the battles against Pyrrhus and in the 5th book the defeat of the Romans at Cannae against Hannibal (216 BC) was mentioned. In the 13th book the return of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus (99 BC ) occurred , in the 19th book the victory of Sulla over Archelaus (86 BC). As with similar historical works, the author presented the contemporary history that he had experienced himself in a much broader way than the time long ago.

Claudius Quadrigarius, who probably wrote from the point of view of the Optimates, essentially followed the annalistic scheme, but adorned the annual reports, which were poor especially in older Roman history, under the influence of Hellenistic historiography with invented speeches and letters, heroic deeds, information on the history and layout of Cities, etc. In a section of the first book of his annals, which Aulus Gellius gave to him, he presented in detail the duel between Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus and a gigantic Gaul; Otherwise his report resembles that of Titus Livius in the essential points and is dated 367 BC by the same author. BC, while Livy dated this episode to the year 361 BC. Chr. Told. A stylistic comparison between Livius and Claudius Quadrigarius is also possible through this longer literal quote. The description of battles in Claudius is much more fictional than, for example, the more realistic representations of Polybius, which are partly based on autopsy . Also in order to make the material more interesting for the reader, he did not shy away from some exaggerations, especially the high casualties of the Roman opponents. Overall, he wasn't always believable. He wrote in simple and clear sentences using numerous archaic words.

In his list of important annalists, Marcus Tullius Cicero only briefly deals with Claudius Quadrigarius (as Clodius). But Livius used it extensively from his 6th book onwards, but mentions it in ten explicit quotations (some of which are added by Orosius , who is based on Livius ), only Claudius without cognomen. For the surviving books 31–45 of Livy it can be stated that he used Claudius as the main source, alongside Valerius Antias, especially for events in Italy. But it is hardly possible to distinguish borrowings from Claudius from those from Valerius Antias, since Livius does not reproduce the wording of his original authors, but edited them and, above all, adapted their style to the tastes of the public for his time. There is no evidence that Dionysius of Halicarnassus used Claudius Quadrigarius, but who was rediscovered in the 2nd century AD because of its archaisms. Gellius in particular wrote longer verbatim fragments from it, Fronto praised his style, and grammarians recorded his rare ancient words.

The identity of Claudius Quadrigarius with a Claudius twice named by Livius , who translated or edited the Greek annals of Acilius into Latin, further with a Clodius mentioned by Plutarch , who wrote a work élenchos chrónon , and with one by Appian as the author a work chronikai syntaxeis called Paul Claudius .

expenditure

  • Hans Beck, Uwe Walter (ed.): The early Roman historians . Vol. 2. From Coelius Antipater to Pomponius Atticus . Knowledge Buchges., Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-14758-8 , pp. 109-167.
  • Hermann Peter: Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae (HRR). Vol. I², pp. 205-237.

literature

  • Mathias Hanses: Summo genere gnatus. Aristocratic bias in Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius . In: Rheinisches Museum 154 (2011), pp. 152–175.
  • Wolfgang Schibel: Language treatment and representation in Roman prose. Claudius Quadrigarius, Livius, Aulus Gellius . Amsterdam 1971.
  • Alfred Klotz : The Annalist Q. Claudius Quadrigarius . In: Rheinisches Museum 91 (1942), pp. 268–285.
  • Alfred Klotz: Livius and his predecessors . Leipzig 1940/41.
  • Benedikt Niese : Claudius 308 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 2, Stuttgart 1899, Col. 2858-2861.

Remarks

  1. ^ Velleius Paterculus 2, 9, 6.
  2. ↑ Cf. Titus Livius 6, 1; Plutarch , Numa 1.
  3. ↑ 9, 13, 7-19 = fragment 10b, ed. Peter.
  4. ↑ 7, 9, 6-7, 10, 14.
  5. ↑ de legibus 1, 2, 6.
  6. ↑ epistulae 1, 1, p. 114 ed. Naber.
  7. ↑ 25, 39, 12 and 35, 14, 5.
  8. ↑ Numa 1, 2.
  9. ↑ Celtica 1.
personal data
SURNAME Claudius Quadrigarius, Quintus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Quadrigarius, Quintus Claudius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman historian
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century BC Chr.