Sulpicius Alexander

Sulpicius Alexander was a late antique Roman historian who probably lived in the late 4th / early 5th centuries.

Little is known about Sulpicius Alexander. He wrote a Latin historical work that included at least four books and treated at least the period up to the death of Emperor Valentinian II (392). It is not known whether the work extended into the 5th century. It has not survived, but Gregory of Tours , who lived in the later 6th century, used the Historia of Sulpicius Alexander and at one point quotes very extensively from the work. The Historia of Sulpicius Alexander was probably one of Gregory's main sources for the early history of the Franks , along with the depiction of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus ; the excerpts received provide important information regarding the Franks and the situation at the court of Valentinian II.

Both Sulpicius Alexander and Frigeridus apparently followed the tradition of classical historiography, which flourished again in late antiquity. Sulpicius Alexander depicts a failed Roman campaign against the Franks in 388 in the excerpt from Gregor's copy based on the model of the clades Variana (see Marcomer , Sunno and Gennobaudes ). The example of Sulpicius Alexander and Frigeridus shows that even after Ammianus Marcellinus , Latin histories were still written according to the classical model, although none of them has survived today. It is possible that Sulpicius Alexander wrote his work after Ammianus Marcellinus, whose Res Gestae ended in 378.

Editions / translations

Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .

Lieve Van Hoof, Peter Van Nuffelen ( eds / translators) : The Fragmentary Latin Histories of Late Antiquity (AD 300-620). Edition, Translation and Commentary. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020, p. 81 ff.

literature

Helmut Castritius : Sulpicius Alexander. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 30, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018385-4 , p. 129.
Günther Christian Hansen: Sulpicius Alexander - a historian after Ammian. In: Meeting reports of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR. 15 / G, 1982, pp. 89-91.
François Paschoud : Les descendants d'Ammien Marcellin (Sulpicius Alexander et Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus) . In: Denis Knoepfler (Ed.): Nomen Latinum. Mélanges André Schneider . Neuchatel 1997, pp. 141-147.
Otto Seeck : Alexandros 75) . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 1446.

Remarks

↑ For a possible résumé cf. Seeck, RE I, 2, col. 1446.
^ Gregory of Tours, Decem Libri Historiarum 2.9.
^ Paschoud, Les descendants d'Ammien Marcellin .
↑ This point is very often overlooked, cf. For example, the statement by Dariusz Brodka in a review by H-Soz-u-Kult : Treadgold, however, wrongly states that, after Ammian, no classical history was written in Latin (p. 79). Latin historians such as Frigeridus, Sulpicius Alexander or Memmius Symmachus wrote such historical works in the 5th and 6th centuries. Meeting (PDF; 87 kB).
↑ See Hansen, Sulpicius Alexander ; Seeck, RE I, 2, Sp. 1446.

personal data
SURNAME	Sulpicius Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Alexander, Sulpicius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	late antique historian
DATE OF BIRTH	4th century
DATE OF DEATH	4th century or 5th century

[1] For a possible résumé cf. Seeck, RE I, 2, col. 1446.

[2] Gregory of Tours, Decem Libri Historiarum 2.9.

[3] Paschoud, Les descendants d'Ammien Marcellin .

[4] This point is very often overlooked, cf. For example, the statement by Dariusz Brodka in a review by H-Soz-u-Kult : Treadgold, however, wrongly states that, after Ammian, no classical history was written in Latin (p. 79). Latin historians such as Frigeridus, Sulpicius Alexander or Memmius Symmachus wrote such historical works in the 5th and 6th centuries. Meeting (PDF; 87 kB).

[5] See Hansen, Sulpicius Alexander ; Seeck, RE I, 2, Sp. 1446.