Valerius Antias

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Valerius Antias was a Roman historian ( annalist ) of the 1st century BC. Chr.

Life

Little is known about the life of Valerius Antias, not even his prenomen . He was probably the younger contemporary of Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius and lived in Sulla's time , although some newer scholars place him in the time of Caesar and his work after 50 BC. Let write BC, among other things with the argument that he was apparently unknown to Marcus Tullius Cicero . He was the most important of the "younger annalists" and was able to compete with Titus Livius for a long time in antiquity .

plant

The work of Valerius Antias, lost like most ancient Roman histories, comprised at least 75 books annales (sometimes cited as historiae ), which covered the historical arc from the founding of Rome to at least 91 BC. Chr. Tensioned. After all, it is one of the most cited annals with a total of 66 safe fragments. The second book dealt with the work of the legendary Roman king Numa Pompilius , the 22nd book the 136 BC. Gaius Hostilius Mancinus surrendered in the 2nd century BC (not discussed in Livius' book 55 ). Accordingly, as in comparable works, the older period was told much more briefly than the contemporary history of the author; more than 60% was devoted to the time since the Gracchi .

Valerias Antias brought many unreliable to fictitious "facts" in his work. For example, Livy criticizes his exaggerated (mostly invented) figures of war dead and prisoners. In particular, he often used the figure of 40,000 killed enemies (twice as many as a consular army), since it returns several times. He simply multiplied some numbers actually handed down by older historians, but he did not always offer the maximum values; sometimes Claudius Quadrigarius, for example, reported higher losses. Valerius Antias occasionally seems to have invented battles in the first place. From time to time, however, he also passed on correct values, as a comparison with some places in Polybios shows.

The history presentation was structured annually; Every year the allocation of provinces and troops, important omens, battles, establishment of new colonies, etc. were described. Towards the end of the annual report came reports of games, temple dedications, and other news, especially urban Roman news. Under the influence of Hellenistic historiography, Valerius Antias told his readers in a very extravagant and effect-seeking manner, adorned the mostly short accounts of older historians with many dramatic details and also brought many legends and miracle stories. Probably for compositional reasons, he systematically falsified the scipion processes and merged events several years apart into one year; He proceeded similarly with the Pleminius story. Since there were only a few credible sources, especially about the earlier Roman history, and mostly only a dry framework of names of the bearers of the highest state offices was known, Valerius Antias apparently invented offices for members of his family living in this older period, the Valerians , otherwise unattended and actions to praise them. In some cases he probably also devised documents (such as resolutions by the Senate) to give his presentation a more credible look. Rationalistically, he went to work with the report on the discovery of the coffins with the books of Numa, by having them uncovered by downpours, not by excavation as in the older tradition.

Livius used Valerius Antias extensively, probably much more often than his 35 quotations suggest. According to Alfred Klotz , Valerius Antias was only a secondary source in the first decade of the Annals of Livy; In the third decade, Lucius Coelius Antipater was initially , but from the 23rd book Valerius Antias was the main source for those events of the Hannibalian War that took place in Italy. For the presentation of history in Italy and Western Europe, Livius is likely to have used Valerius Antias as a template again in Books 31-38 according to Klotz and supplemented or corrected by Claudius Quadrigarius, while Polybius provided the main material for the events in the East. Since Livius apparently noticed the falsified report on the Scipion Trials, he became more suspicious of Valerias Antias and should have preferred Claudius Quadrigarius as the main source for the Italian and Western European scene from the 39th book onwards. For the lost books of Livius, of course, nothing certain can be said about his use of Valerius Antias.

Valerius Antias was spelled out heavily not only by Livius, but probably by several later historians, for example by Dionysius of Halicarnassus and for the Second Punic War by Appian , Plutarch and Silius Italicus ; furthermore it was probably used by Valerius Maximus and Cassius Dio .

style

The style of Valerius Antias was inconspicuous and contained only a few ancient words; in any case, he did not write archaically. Marcus Cornelius Fronto assesses his language as "unattractive" ( invenuste ). Therefore it was rarely quoted verbatim by the later grammarians.

Editions and translations

  • Hermann Peter (ed.): Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae (HRR) . Vol. 1. Teubner, Leipzig ² 1914, pp. 238-275.
  • 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. 168-240.

literature

  • Alfred Klotz : Livius and his predecessors . 3 vol. Teubner, Leipzig 1940/1941.
  • Hans Volkmann : Valerius 98. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII A, 2, Stuttgart 1948, Sp. 2313-2340.
  • Dieter Timpe : Considerations for the recent annals . In: Antike & Abendland 25 (1979), pp. 97–119.
  • Tilmann Leidig: Valerius Antias and an annalist editor of Polybius as sources of Livius, primarily for books 30 and 31 . Lang, Frankfurt (Main) a. a. 1994.
  • Gary Forsythe: Dating and Arranging the Roman History of Valerius Antias . In: Vanessa B. Gorman / Eric W. Robinson (eds.): Oikistes. Studies in Constitutions, Colonies, and Military Power in the Ancient World . Brill, Leiden u. a. 2002, pp. 99-112.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Velleius Paterculus 2, 9, 4.
  2. ↑ Cicero never mentions him, especially not in his list of important historians ( de legibus 1, 2, 3-7).
  3. ↑ About Livy 26:49, 3; 33, 10, 8 and ö.
  4. ↑ z. B. could the consul Publius Villius Tappulus 199 BC. BC after the credible Polybius won no major victories against the Macedonians, but Valerius Antias told of a great victory on the Aoos (Livius 32, 6, 5-8).
  5. ↑ In Livius 38, 50ff.
  6. ↑ Cf. Livius 29, 21
  7. ↑ epistle ad Verus 1,1, p. 134, 2 ed. Van den Hout
personal data
SURNAME Valerius Antias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valerius Antias, Quintus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman historian
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century BC Chr.