Nummius Aemilianus Dexter
[Lössl, Josef (2016). ]
Dexter, Nummius Aemilianus
. '' Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle''. Brill Online. ( 380–395), often erroneously called Flavius Lucius Dexter,
[Garrido Valls, David (2016), ]
Omnimoda Historia
. ''Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle''. Brill Online. was a figure of the late fourth century, reported as a historian, and a friend of
St Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is comm ...
. He was the son of
St Pacian, an imperial office-holder, and dedicatee of a work of Jerome, the ''
De Viris Illustribus
''De Viris Illustribus'', meaning "concerning illustrious men", represents a genre of literature which evolved during the Italian Renaissance in imitation of the exemplary literature of Ancient Rome. It inspired the widespread commissioning of g ...
''.
He also served as
proconsul of
Asia under emperor
Theodosius I (379–395) and hold the position of
praetorian prefect of Italy in 395.
Dexter was the supposed author of a chronicle, called the ''Omnimoda Historia'' or the ''Chronicle of Pseudo-Dexter''. It was in fact a forgery, one of a number of
Jerónimo Román de la Higuera's (1538–1611), who published a collection of false documents in 1594 attributed to "Flavius Lucius Dexter" (alongside "Marcus Maximus" and "Eutrandus").
The suspect authorship has been widely known since the work of the Spanish bibliographer
Nicolás Antonio, the ''Censura de historias fabulosas'', published in 1742.
Doubts were already cast on these false chronicles before 1600, but controversy continued late into the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century there were still references to the Chronicle as genuine, e.g. its inclusion in Volume 31 of the ''
Patrologia Latina
The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...
''.
There is a second work attributed to him, ''In prophetam Danielis de quatuor animalibus'' ("Against the prophet Daniel on the four animals").
The real Dexter was the author of a genuine work known as the ''Omnimoda Historia'' (which St. Jerome refers to in ''On Illustrious Men'' 132, but claims he had not read it) but while historians are agreed that it is to be distinguished from the ''Chronicle of Pseudo-Dexter'', the exact nature of the work is debated. Given Jerome's similar phraseology in reference to Eusebius' ''Chronicle'', the work has been seen as either a continuation or translation of that work.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dexter, Nummius Aemilianus
444 deaths
4th-century Romans
5th-century Romans
Literary forgeries
Romans from Hispania