FLORUS, LUCIUS ANN/EUS, a native of Spain, or, according to others, of Gaul, lived under Trajan and Hadrian. Some have sup posed him to be the same ae Lucius Julius Florus, who lived under Augustus, and to whom Horace has addressed two of his Epistles; but as, in the proemium to his history, Morns apeaka of Trajan, he cannot be the same person as Lucius Julius, unless we suppose the passage to be interpolated. This question has been diacuased by Titze, 'De Epitome Rerum Romanorum,' 1801. Others have sup posed Florus the historian to be the same as Julius Florus or Floridua, who lived under Hadrian, and wrote the Pervigilium Veneris,' a pretty poem in imitatiou of Horace's Carmen Seculare;' but the identity of the two writers is very doubtful. Lucius Aunmus Florus wrote a small work entitled 'Epitome de Gestic Romanorum,' in four books, from the foundation of the city to the closing of the Temple of Janus by Augustus. The author compiled his epitome from Livy and from other historians whose works are lost. It is meagre and declama tory, and is less a history than a panegyric of the Roman people.
Florus is also incorrect in hia chronology and geography. It must be observed however that the text, as we have it, is corrupt and interpo• lated. The work is of some use as a kind of substitute, however poor, for those books of Livy which are lost. Some manuscripts attribute to Florus also the Epitomm, or heads of contents, of the books of Livy.
F0-111, tho name of the first emperor of China, is said to have been born in the province of Shensy, and to have reigned B.C. 2952. According to the Chinese hiatoriana, Fo-hi reclaimed the inhabitants of China from barbarism, established social order, instituted marriage, and taught them the use of writing. Fo-hi and his two successors Shin-noong and Hoang-ti, who are usually termed the Three Emperors,' must be considered as belonging to the fabulous part of Chinese history. He is said to have been the author of one of the canonical books of the Chinese, called Ye-king.' (Du Halde, Description de l'Empire de la Chine, vol. i. p. 266-269; vol. ii. p. 344 353.)