The Fragmentary Latin Histories of Late Antiquity (AD 300-620): Edition, Translation and Commentary

Description

The first systematic collection of fragmentary Latin historians from the period AD 300-620, this volume provides an edition and translation of, and commentary on, the fragments. It proposes new interpretations of the fragments and of the works from which they derive, whilst also spelling out what the fragments add to our knowledge of Late Antiquity. Integrating the fragmentary material with the texts preserved in full, the volume suggests new ways to understand the development of history writing in the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

Lieve Van Hoof is Professor of Ancient History at Ghent University. Trained as a classicist, historian and political scientist, she studies the socio-political role of literature under the Roman Empire. Her publications include Plutarch's Practical Ethics: The Social Dynamics of Philosophy (2010) and Libanius: A Critical Introduction (2014). Together with Peter Van Nuffelen, she has published the Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (2019), a full inventory of late antique historiography, and a translation of Jordanes' Romana and Getica (2020). Peter Van Nuffelen is Professor of Ancient History at Ghent University, where he has led an European Research Council-funded team on late ancient historiography. He has published widely on Late Antiquity, early Christianity, and ancient religion and philosophy. Recent books are Orosius and the Rhetoric of History (2012) and Penser la tolerance dans l'Antiquite tardive (2018).

'The value of the volume lies not only in that the fragmentary material has been made available in a good edition and translation, but also in the comprehensive one, always stimulating discussion performance, which is certainly rightly based on a fundamental skepticism towards speculative constructions. Without a doubt, a standard work has been created here. A rich and useful Bibliography concludes the volume and provides an impression of the intensive research work that was reflected there.' Bruno Bleckmann, Histos