The foregoing annals of the German monasteries possess varying historical value. They have all been edited by Pertz, in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Hanover, 1819, in progress.
Appianus Alexandrinus, Πωμαϊκὴ ἱστορία, edited by Schweighauser, Leipsic, 1785, 3 vols.; translated from the Greek by J. D(ancer),“The History of Appian of Alexandria,” London, 1679. (See Introduction, vol. V.)—Apuleius, Lucius, Metamorphoseon seu de Asino Aureo Libri XI, edited by Andrew, bishop of Aleria, Rome, 1469; translated from the Latin by Thomas Tylor, London, 1822; and by Sir G. Head, The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, London, 1851.—Augustan History, Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores (Ælius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Ælius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio and Flavius Vopiscus), Milan, 1475; Venice, 1489; edited by Casarabon, Paris, 1603; by Salmasius, Paris, 1620; by Schrevelius, Leyden, 1671; by Jordan and Eyssenhardt, Berlin, 1863. (See also Dirksen, Paucker and Plew.)
Augustan History is the title given to a series of biographies of the Roman emperors from Hadrian to Carinus, ostensibly written by the six authors above mentioned in the time of Diocletian and Constantine. The most recent research tends to show that the collection, at least, in the form in which we have it, is a compilation of the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century and that the authors’ names formerly attached to it are entirely fictitious. The authenticity of the official documents contained in it is also questioned. It is, nevertheless, an important, for many facts almost the only, source of our knowledge of imperial Rome.
Augustine, Saint, De Civitate Dei, Paris, 1679-1700: reprint, 1836-1838. Edited by Strange, Cologne, 1850-1851, 2 vols.; by Dombart, Leipsic, 1877.
Cæsar, Caius Julius, Commentarii de bello Gallico; Commentarii de bello civili, Rome, 1440; edited by Jungerman, Frankfort, 1606; by C. E. Moberly, with English notes, 1871-1872; 1877; 1882 (translated by Edmunds); Cæsar’s Commentaries, on the Gallic and Civil Wars, London, 1609 (translated by W. H. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn, London, 1857).
Julius Cæsar, who shares with Alexander and Napoleon the honours of unapproachable military genius, was born on July 12th, B.C. 100, or according to Mommsen, in B.C. 102. His merits and demerits as a soldier and statesman have been fully dealt with in volume V. Here note need only be taken of his celebrated writings—the Commentaries—which relate the history of the first seven years of the Gallic War, and the progress of the Civil War up to the Alexandrine, and the main object of which was the justification of the author’s course in war and in politics. The opening words of De bello Gallico are often noted as a model of literary perspicuity, and throughout the whole work there is a rigorous exclusion of every expression for the use of which no standard authority could be found. It is the utterance of a man who, knowing precisely what he means to say, says it with directness and lucidity. The Commentaries may indeed be regarded as a kind of high-class classical journalism, written down, as we have reason to assume, from day to day from the dictation of the chief actor in the events narrated.
Capitolinus, Julius, see Augustan History.—Cassiodorus, Senator Magnus Aurelius, Variarum (Epistolarum) Libri XII; Libri XII De Rebus Gestis Gothorum, Augsburg, 1533; Paris, 1584; Rouen, 1679, 2 vols.
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (about 480-575 A.D.), although a scion of a noble Roman family, spent the best part of his long life in the service of the Gothic kings, and filled the most important offices under Theodoric and his successors. In his later years, after retirement to a monastery, he was no less active as a writer and a protector of learning. His most important work, De Rebus Gestis Gothorum, is preserved only in the barbarous version of Jordanes. The Variarum, a collection of letters and official documents, forms the best source of information concerning the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy.
Chronicle of Moissiac (Chronicon Moissiacense), in the Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Hanover, 1819-1904, in progress.
The Chronicle of Moissiac, which seems to have had its origin in Aquitaine, is of some value for the history of southern Gaul in the early part of the ninth century.
Chronicon Cuspiniani, Basel, 1552.
These annals, an outgrowth of the consular fasti and more recently known as Fasti Vindobonenses or Consularia Italica, are important for their accurate chronological data of the fourth and fifth centuries.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Orationes (Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino), edited by Andrew, bishop of Aleria, Rome, 1471; German translation by Klotz, Leipsic, 1835, 3 vols.; English translation by Wm. Guthrie, London, 1806, 2 vols.; and by C. D. Yonge, London, 1851-1852, 4 vols. Cicero’s writings, though not primarily historical, furnish valuable material for the historian.—Claudian(us), Claudius, Opera, Vincenza, 1482; Vienna, 1510; edited by Palmannus, Antwerp, 1571; by Burmann, Amsterdam, 1760; English translation by A. Hawkins, London, 1817, 2 vols.
Claudian was the last Latin classic poet. He was a native of Alexandria, but came to Rome about the end of the fourth century. He enjoyed the patronage of Stilicho, who granted him wealth and honours, but probably shared his patron’s ruin in 408. Claudian wrote numerous panegyrical poems, three historical epics, and many occasional verses. His epics are not without value as historical sources, as they follow the facts of history closely.
Cluverius (Cluver), Philip, Germania Antiqua, Leyden, 1616.—Cochtaens, Joannes, Vita Theodorici regis Ostrogothorum et Italiæ, annotated by J. Peringskiöld, Stockholm, 1699.—Codex Carolinus (Letters from the Popes to Frankish Kings), edited by Philip Jaffé in his Monumenta Carolina, Berlin, 1867.
The Codex Carolinus, Letters from the Popes to the Frankish Kings, collected by the order of Charlemagne, is one of the most important of historical sources.
Codex Gothanus, edited by Waitz, in Monumenta Germaniæ, Historica, Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum, Hanover, 1819, in progress.
Composed probably about 810, and prefixed to a manuscript of Lombard laws now in the Ducal Library at Gotha.
Codex Theodosianus, Paris, 1686; edited by Hanel in the Corpus Juris Antejustinia neum, vol. II, Bonn, 1842.
A compilation in the year 438, of the constitutions of the Roman emperors from Constantine the Great to Theodosius II. It formed the basis for the Code of Justinian, and is the great authority for the social and political history of the period. These decrees with their appendices were officially recognised in the eastern empire, but in the west they had force only in an abbreviated version. The original work was in sixteen books, arranged chronologically by subjects, but at least a third of the entire work exists only in the abbreviated form.
Dion Cassius Cocceianus, Ῥωμαϊκὴ ἱστορία; Latin translation by N. Leonicenus, Venice, 1526; edited by Leunclavius, Frankfort, 1592; by J. A. Fabricius and H. S. Reimarus, Hamburg, 1750-1752, 2 vols.; by Sturz, Leipsic, 1824, 8 vols.; English translation by Manning, The History of Dion-Cassius, London, 1704, 8 vols.