Florus

Epitome of Roman History Florus

Publisher Marketing: Little is known about the historian Florus. His history purports variously to have been written under the emperor Trajan (98-117), and 200 years from the reign of Augustus (27 BC - AD 14). There is considerable diagreement as to his full name, which is given on various manuscripts as Julius Florus, Lucius Anneus Florus, Annaeus Florus, or simply Lucius Annaeus (which led some to attribute his work to the philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca). He may be the same man as the poet and rhetorician Publius Annius Florus, who was born in Africa and was a contemporary of the emperor Hadrian (117-138). He compiled, chiefly from Livy, a brief sketch of the history of Rome from the foundation of the city to the closing of the temple of Janus by Augustus (25 BC). The work, which is called Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum omnium annorum DCC Libri duo, is written in a bombastic and rhetorical style - a panegyric of the greatness of Rome, the life of which is divided into the periods of infancy, youth and manhood. It is often wrong in geographical and chronological details. In spite of its faults, the book was much used as a handy epitome of Roman history, in the Middle Ages, and survived as a textbook into the nineteenth century. In the manuscripts, the writer is variously named as Julius Florus, Lucius Anneus Florus, or simply Annaeus Florus. From certain similarities of style, he has been identified as Publius Annius Florus, poet, rhetorician and friend of Hadrian, author of a dialogue on the question of whether Virgil was an orator or poet, of which the introduction has been preserved.