Florus

The best manuscript of a certain brief history of Rome from Romulus to Augustus, a 10th-century copy in Bamberg (B), gives its author as Julius Florus. Other manuscripts give its author's name as Lucius Annaeus Florus. However, many believe that the author of the history is Publius Annius Florus, poet, friend of the Emperor Hadrian and author of a dialogue entitled Vergilius orator an poeta, of which only a fragment survives. In the following I shall concentrate on the history and refer to its author simply as Florus.

The various titles of the history describe it as an epitome of Livy. Livy is indeed by far its most important source, followed closely enough that Livy can at some points offer important readings in Florus. Conversely, Florus' history is one of the most important sources for re-imagining the missing books of Livy.

However, the reader should not be misled into thinking that Florus compiled his history solely from Livy. At times he disagrees with Livy. He draws from the histories of Sallust, Caesar and the Elder Seneca. There are hints of the poetry of Vergil and Lucan.

The numerous manuscripts of Florus testify to the great popularity, in earlier ages, of brief histories of Rome. In the 6th century, Jordanes, in his history entitled De summa temporum vel origine actibusque gentis Romanorum, excerpts Florus to such a great extent that he is treated as an early manuscript, with the designation I. The above-mentioned B comes from a source similar to I, and I and B are sometimes referred to together as group [A]. Separate from [A] are the great number of manuscripts in group [C]. From [C], PK Marshall, in LD Reynolds (ed), Texts and Transmission, Oxford, 1983, p 165, selects 12 manuscripts from [C], from the 9th to the 13th century, mostly from France and western Germany, as being the most important.

The date and place of the editio princeps are unknown to me. I have seen it described as being printed in Paris in 1470; however, I have really no idea how authoritative that description might happen to be. A second edition was printed by Aldus in Venice in 1521. Nine further editions were printed before the end of the 19th century. More recent editions have come from Teubner, Loeb, Bude and the Libreria dello Stato.

Today, the importance of Florus' text as history is seen as slight. Florus wrote it as a panegyric, describing Rome's military prowess as ever-increasing until it reached a peak in the time of the Gracchi, and steadily declining since then. This attitude of praising past greatness and regretting present decline had much greater appeal in earlier epochs than it does at present. However, Florus does occasionally offer a pleasing turn of phrase. And his interest to textual critics, and to those of us interested in the missing books of Livy, is great.