Marcus Velleius Paterculus

Early 16th century publication edited by Beatus Rhenanus

Marcus Velleius Paterculus (c. 19 BC – c. AD 31), also known as Velleius (/vɛˈliːəs, -ˈleɪəs/) was a Roman historian. His History (Latin: Historiae),[1] written in a highly rhetorical style, covered the period from the end of the Trojan War to the death of Livia in 29 AD, but is most useful for the period from the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. to the death of Augustus in 14 AD. Although Velleius's praenomen is given as Marcus by Priscian, some modern scholars identify him with Gaius Velleius Paterculus, whose name occurs in an inscription on a north African milestone (C.I.L. VIII.10, 311).

Biography

Paterculus may have been born c. 19 BC in Aeclanum, a major centre of Hirpinia, into a distinguished Campanian family. He may have also been a native of Capua.

He entered the army at an early age, served as military tribune in Thrace, Macedonia, Greece and the East, and in AD 2 was present at the interview on the Euphrates between Gaius Caesar, grandson of Augustus, and the Parthian king Phraataces. Afterwards, as praefect of cavalry and legatus, he served for eight years (from AD 4) in Germany and Pannonia under Tiberius.

For his services he was rewarded with the quaestorship in AD 8, and, together with his brother, with the praetorship in AD 15.

He was still alive in AD 30, for his history contains many references to the consulship of M. Vinicius in that year. It has been conjectured that he was put to death in AD 31 as a friend of Sejanus, whom he praises.[2]

Writings

His Compendium of Roman History consists of two books dedicated to M. Vinicius, and covers the period from the dispersion of the Greeks after the siege of Troy down to the death of Livia (AD 29). The first book brings the history down to the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC; portions of it are missing, including the beginning. The later history, especially the period from the death of Julius Caesar, 44 BC, to the death of Augustus, AD 14, is treated in much greater detail. Brief notices are given of Greek and Roman literature, but no mention is made of Plautus, Horace or Propertius. The author does not display real historical insight, although generally trustworthy in his statements of individual facts. He may be regarded as a courtly annalist rather than an historian. His chronology is inconsistent. On Caesar, Augustus and above all on his patron Tiberius, he lavishes praise or flattery. The repetitions, redundancies, and slovenliness of expression may be partly due to the haste with which (as the author frequently states) it was written. The inflated rhetoric, the straining after effect by means of hyperbole, antithesis and epigram, belong firmly to the Silver Age, of which Paterculus is the earliest example. He purposed to write a fuller history of the later period, including the civil war between Caesar and Pompey and the wars of Tiberius; but there is no evidence that he did so. His chief authorities were Cato's Origines, the Annales of Quintus Hortensius, Pompeius Trogus, Cornelius Nepos, and Livy.

Velleius Paterculus was little known in antiquity. He seems to have been read by Lucan and imitated by Sulpicius Severus, but he is mentioned only by the scholiast on Lucan, and once by Priscian.

Early editions

The text of the work, preserved in a single badly written and mutilated manuscript (discovered by Beatus Rhenanus in 1515 in Murbach Abbey in Alsace and now lost), is very corrupt.

On the sources see

Newer edition

Commentaries

Translation with Latin text

References

  1. ↑ Full title: Historiarum ad M. Vinicium consulem libri duo.
  2. ↑ Syme (1956), p. 265.

Further reading

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Velleius Paterculus, Marcus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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