II. IMPERIAL PERIOD: Ancient Sources.—The memoirs of Augustus as well as those of his contemporaries (Messalla, Agrippa, Maecenas, etc.) and successors (Tiberius, Agrippina the younger, etc.) have perished, but we possess the Res gestae divi Augusti inscribed on the walls of his temple at Ancyra (ed. Mommsen, 1883, Ramsay and Premerstein's Mon. Antiochenum, 1927, includes the fragments re cently found at Antioch). Aufidius Bassus wrote the history of the civil wars and early empire, perhaps to A.D. 49, and this was con tinued by Pliny the Elder (q.v.) in 31 books, probably to the accession of Vespasian. These works and others were used by Tacitus (q.v.), whose Annals (properly called ab excessu divi Augusti) and Histories, when complete, carried the story of the empire down to A.D. 96. Pliny's correspondence with Trajan about the affairs of Bithynia, which he administered in A.D. 111-113, is of great historical value. Suetonius (q.v.), who was for some time secretary of state to Hadrian, wrote biographies of the emperors from Julius Caesar to Domitian. Arrian, a Bithynian Greek, wrote on Rome's policy and wars in the East. Appian (v. supra) dealt with the wars waged under the early empire in the closing books of his work, which have not been preserved. Dio Cassius, a Bithynian, wrote a history of Rome to the death of Elagabalus in 8o books. We possess only epitomes and excerpts of the portion dealing with events from A.D. 46 onwards, except for parts of the 78th and 79th books, in which Dio's narrative of contemporary events is especially valuable. Herodian, a Syrian, wrote a history of the emperors from Commodus to Gordian III., which as the work of a contemporary is not without value. The Historia Augusta (see AUGUSTAN HisroRms), upon which we are obliged to rely. for the history of the 3rd century A.D., consists in a series of lives of the emperors (including most of the pretenders to that title) from Hadrian to Carinus, professedly written by six authors, under Diocletian and Constantine. Modern criticism has shown that (at least in its present form) it is an unreliable compila tion made in the latter half of the 4th century. The fragments of Dexippus, an Athenian who successfully defended his native town against Goths, throw much light on the barbaric invasions of the 3rd century. The most important historian of the 4th century was
Ammianus Marcellinus, a native of Antioch and an officer in the imperial guard, who continued the work of Tacitus (in Latin) to the death of Valens. We possess the last 18 books of his history which cover the years A.D. 353-378. Two compendia of imperial history pass under the name of Aurelius Victor, the Caesares, or lives of the emperors from Augustus to Julian, and the Epitome de Caesaribus (not by the same author) which goes down to Theodosius I. Similar works are the Breviarum of Eutropius (secretary of state under Valens) and the still more brief epitome of Festus. The writings of the Emperor Julian and of the rhetoricians Libanius, Themistius and Eunapius—the last-named continued the history of Dexippus to A.D. 404—are of great value for the latter part of the 4th century A.D. They wrote as pagans, while the Christian version of events is given by the three orthodox historians Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret, and the Arian Philostorgius, all of whom wrote in the 5th century. An imperial official, Zosimus, writing in the latter half of that century, gave a sketch of imperial history to A.D. 410 ; the latter part is valuable, being based on contemporary writings. The bishops Synesius and Palladius, who lived under Arcadius and Theodosius II., furnish valuable information as to their own times:.
while the fragments of Priscus tell us much of Attila and the Hunnish invasions. Mention must also be made of the poets and letter-writers of the 4th and 5th centuries--Ausonius, Claudian, Symmachus, Paulinus of Nola, Sidonius Apollinaris, Prudentius, Merobaudes and others—from whose writings much historical information is derived. Cassiodorus, the minister of Theodoric, wrote a history of the Goths, transmitted to us in the Historia Gothorum of Jordanes (c. A.D. 55o), which gives an account of the earlier barbaric invasions. Several chronological works were compiled in the 4th and 5th centuries. It will suffice to name the Chronology of Eusebius (to A.D. 324) , translated by Jerome and carried down to A.D. 378, and the Chronog raphy of A.D. 354, an illustrated calendar containing miscellaneous information.