The Lost History of Sextus Aurelius Victor - (Edinburgh Studies in Later Latin Literature) by Justin Stover & George Woudhuysen

About the Book

Edinburgh Studies in Later Latin Literature offers a forum for new scholarship on important and sometimes neglected works.

Book Synopsis

This book rediscovers a lost history of the Roman Empire, written by Sextus Aurelius Victor in the middle of the fourth century A.D. Though little regarded today, Victor was the most famous historian of his day, read by Jerome and Ammianus, honoured with a statue by the pagan Emperor Julian, and a prestigious prefecture by the Christian Theodosius. Our rediscovery of the original scope and scale of his Historia revolutionises our understanding of the writing of history in late antiquity, with profound implications for the study of Roman history and the transmission of the Classics.

Review Quotes

The landscape of late antique historiography is revolutionized as a result of this tour de force. Stover and Woudhuysen write engagingly and clearly, and the reader is masterfully led through a cumulative argument which has the air of soothing inexorability that the finest empirical demonstrations achieve. [...] the account they have put forward will be the necessary starting point of any future investigation of late antique historiography, including those that will be heading in very different directions; and their sharp and engrossing discussion will prompt new interest in the topic from a number of quarters, and will encourage scholars who have not so far worked in this area to dip into waters that require fresh, earnest, and energetic exploration.--Federico Santangelo, Newcastle University "Greece & Rome"

There are few books that live up to the claims made on their back cover, but The Lost History of Sextus Aurelius Victor by Justin Stover and George Woudhuysen surely is a "radical rewriting of the history of fourth-century Latin literature." [...] By showing that Aurelius Victor was the author of a highquality, multivolume history of the empire until his own day, this brilliant book by Stover and Woudhuysen lays the foundation stone for a new understanding of fourth-century Latin historiography.--Peter Van Nuffelen, Ghent University "The Journal of Late Antiquity"

This is a brilliant book and an extraordinary achievement. It is the sort of thing for which the phrase paradigm-shift should be reserved. It's a long book, and a technical one, but exceptionally well designed and thus easy to follow. The authors have thrown a grenade into their niche and none of its residents, living or dead, come out unwounded.--Michael Kulikowski, The Pennsylvanian State University

About the Author

Justin Stover is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval Latin at the University of Edinburgh.

George Woudhuysen is an Assistant Professor in Roman History at the University of Nottingham.