Some Observations on the ‘Origo Gentis Romanae’
Arnaldo Momigliano
I. Two manuscripts of the fifteenth century—Cod. Bruxellensis (Pulmanni), bibl. regia 9755–63 and Cod. Oxoniensis (Bodl. Canon. Class. Lat. 131)—have preserved for us a ‘corpus’ including three pamphlets: (1) so-called ‘Origo gentis romanae’ (a title, we shall see, not supported by evidence); (2) ‘Liber de viris illustribus urbis Romae’; (3) ‘Aurelii Victoris Historiae abbreviatae,’ more commonly known as ‘Caesares’. The illustribus’ has also been transmitted to in different tradition which omits last nine lives (Caesar, Octavianus, Cato, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, Sextus Pompeius, Marcus Antonius, Cleopatra) differs other respects well.
Journal of Roman Studies