- Florus
Florus, Roman
historian , lived in the time ofTrajan andHadrian .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, however, the book was much used in the Middle Ages and survived as a textbook into the nineteenth century.In the manuscripts the writer is variously named asJulius Florus , Lucius Anneus Florus, or simply Annaeus Florus. From certain similarities of style, he has been identified asPublius Annius Florus , poet, rhetorician and friend ofHadrian , author of a dialogue on the question of whetherVirgil was an orator or poet, of which the introduction has been preserved.The most accessible modern text and translation are in the
Loeb Classical Library (no. 231, published 1984, ISBN 0-674-99254-7).Christopher Plantin, Antwerp, in 1567, published two Lucius Florus texts (two title pages)in one volume. Titles roughly as follows: 1) L.IVLII Flori de Gestis Romanorum, Historiarum; 2) Commentarius I STADII L.IVLII Flori de Gestis Romanorum, Historiarum. The first title has 149 pages, the 2nd has 222 pages plus an index in a 12mo size book.
References
* [http://www.livius.org/am-ao/annius/florus.html Livius.org: Publius Annius Florus]
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*1911
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