Sextus Aurelius Victor (c. 320 –c. 390) was a historian and politician of theRoman Empire. Victor was the author of a now-lost monumental history of imperial Rome covering the period fromAugustus toConstantius II.[1] Under the emperorJulian (361-363), Victor served as governor ofPannonia Secunda in 361;[2] in 389 he becamepraefectus urbi (urban prefect), senior imperial official in Rome.[3]
His surviving work, entitledDe Caesaribus is a brief epitome of his history, and was originally titled in the two surviving manuscriptsAurelii Victoris Historiae Abbreviatae. The work was published in 361.
Aurelius was born to a poor family in North Africa to an uneducated father. He was educated, first atCarthage and then at Rome. He apparently composed his history between 358 and 360.[2] Following the publication his reputation grew enough that Julian erected a bronze status of him inNaissus.[1]
Aurelius survived the death of the pagan Julian into the reign of the fiercely anti-paganTheodosius I (347–395). It appears he becameconsul in 369, andsuffect consul between 370 and 378. In 388 or 389, Theodosius appointed Aurelius urban prefect.[2]
In 1884, German scholarAlexander Enmann posited a hypothetical, lost manuscript to explain the similarities among Aurelius Victor,Eutropius, the author of theHistoria Augusta, and others.[4]: pp.111–114 Recently, however, this source has been suggested to be in fact the lost history of Aurelius Victor, of which his surviving works are only epitomes.[1]
Four small historical works have been ascribed to him, although only his authorship ofDe Caesaribus is securely established:
The four have generally been published together under the nameHistoria Romana. The second was first printed atNaples about 1472, in 4to, under the name ofPliny the Younger, and the fourth inStrasbourg in 1505.[5]
The first edition of all four books was that ofAndreas Schott (8 volumes, Antwerp, 1579). A recent edition of theDe Caesaribus is by Pierre Dufraigne (Collection Budé, 1975).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Victor, Sextus Aurelius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
