EUTROPIUS || (HEARN, Thomas Ed.)

Oxford, e Theatro Sheldoniano, 1703. 8vo. (18),+ 163,+ (13),+ 19,+ (1),+ 32,+ (1),+ 13,+ (1) pp. Title with engr. vignette. Very worn contemporary calf, spine with raised bands, boards with blindstamped mirrors. Top of spine defective and with label worn and partly loose. Schweiger p. 346 ”Werthvolle Ausgabe”. An important edition of the late 4th-century historian and politician Eutropius’ compendium to the Roman history, based on several new MSS and edited together with several other small textes and notes by the English antiquary Thomas Hearn (1678-1735). ”De Augusti progenie” was long believed to be the work of the Roman general and patron of arts Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (64 BC- ca. 12AD), but the text is in fact from the 12th century. Nothing of Messalla’s works have survived. The fifth century author Julius Obsequens’ work ”De prodigii” is about wonder and portents during the republic, mostly taken from Livy and with references to unusual astronomical and meteorological event. The anonyme funeral speech is over a subject that has been variously identified as Constantine II or Theodore Paleologus, brother of Constantine Paleologus.