Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius ( AD) was a translator of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

'' Alexander Romance'', a romantic history of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

, into

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

under the title ''Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis''. The work is in three books on his birth, acts and death. The work is important in connection with the transmission of the Alexander story in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Polemius is tentatively identified by historians with one of the

Roman consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

s for the year 338. The appointment was unusual, as the emperor

Constantine I Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

had died the previous year, and custom prescribed that a new emperor – in this case, Constantine's sons – assumed the consulship in the year following his accession. This led Timothy Barnes to suggest that Polemius, who was probably a general, played a leading role in the purge which killed many members of the imperial family in 337, securing the succession of Constantine's sons, and that he received the consulship as a belated reward for this service. In 345, the same Polemius was a under the emperor

Constantius II Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic ...

, and wrote a letter to the exiled bishop of Alexandria,

Athanasius Athanasius I of Alexandria, ; cop, ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲡⲓⲁⲡⲟⲥⲧⲟⲗⲓⲕⲟⲥ or Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲁ̅; (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, ...

, encouraging him to return to his see. The complete ''Res gestae'' is known from four manuscripts and five fragments. It circulated more widely in several epitomes produced in the eighth and ninth centuries, the most prominent of which is the ''Zacher Epitome'', named after its first editor, Julius Zacher, and known from 67 manuscripts. The latter retains most of the first book and progressively less of books two and three. It only mentions the ''

Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem The ''Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem'' ("Letter of Alexander to Aristotle") is a purported letter from Alexander the Great to the philosopher Aristotle concerning his adventures in India. Although accepted for centuries as genuine, it is to ...

'' in passing, which was thus often copied alongside it. The other popular epitomes were the Oxford-Montpellier and the Liegnitz-Historia.

Citations

References

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External links

* Julius Valerius
''Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis translatae ex Aesopo graeco.''
Lipsiae, 1888. {{DEFAULTSORT:Polemius, Julius Valerius Alexander 3rd-century Latin writers 3rd-century Romans 4th-century Latin writers 4th-century Romans 4th-century translators Comites Greek–Latin translators Imperial Roman consuls Julii Post–Silver Age Latin writers Valerii