Sempronius Asellio

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Publius Sempronius Asellio (died after 91 B.C.¹) was an early Roman historian and one of the first writers of historiographic work in Latin. He was a military tribune of P. Scipio Aemilianus Africanus at the siege of Numantia in Hispania in 134 B.C. Later he joined the circle of writers centred around Scipio Aemilianus. Asiello wrote the history of the events of which he was engaged in (Gell. ii. IB.), and thus preceded Caesar in his more famous accounts of his military campaigns.

[edit] Life

Asellio, whose background is unknown, probably belonged to the prestigious plebeian gens Sempronia. He was greatly influenced by his co-writer supported by Scipio Aemilianus Polybius, who attempted not only to record events as they took place, but also to look for the causes that led to them. Asellio was the first Roman historian to follow this method². In his work, he showed contempt for the previous Roman historians of annalistic school. According to him, they wrote nothing else than a diary as far as form was concerned.³.

[edit] Work

Sempronius Asellio composed Rerum Gestarum Libri (sometimes cited as Idstoriae or libri rerum gestarum) in at least fourteen books, where he dealt mostly with the events of the Punic Wars and onwards⁴. It is said he started recording history after Polybius stopped at 146 B.C.

Cicero did not think highly of Asellio's work and spoke slightingly of it. Nothing apart from a couple of citations preserved in other authors survives of his work.

[edit] References

1. Liv. lxxiv. Epit.

2. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology [1]. Retrieved 14 September 2007.

3. Bruno Gentili, Giovanni Cerri, La letteratura di Roma arcaica e l'ellenismo. Con la collaborazione di Salvatore Monda. Biblioteca Aragno. Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2005. Chapter 7

4. Crutwell, Charles Thomas (M.A.) A History of Roman Literature: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius (1877) Book I Chapter IX