Rufus Festus, Breviarium rerum gestarum populi Romani

Constance Sleeth (University of Otago)

Ed. by William John Dominik, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (The American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 379

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Historical representation

Resources

The Breviarium Rerum Gestarum Populi Romani, or more simply the Breviarium, is a very brief history of the Roman world from the foundation of Rome to the events of the mid-fourth century A.D. This breviary was written by a certain Festus, a bureaucrat working in the employ of the Emperor Valens. There remains controversy over the identification of Festus, although most scholars are now inclined to identify him with one Festus of Tridentum, a proconsul of Asia who appears in the work of Ammianus Marcellinus (the most recent synopsis and discussion of Festus’ identity is Kelly 2010). Festus dedicated his Breviarium to both Valens and Valentinian I, but the work was written primarily with the Emperor Valens in mind, f…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

488 words

Citation: Sleeth, Constance. "Breviarium rerum gestarum populi Romani". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 September 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33493, accessed 24 November 2024.]

Save this article