Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
. Little is known of Q. Claudius Quadrigarius's life, but he probably lived in the .
Work
Quadrigarius's annals spanned at least 23 books. They began with the conquest of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
by the
Gauls
The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They s ...
(BC), reached
Cannae by Book 5, and ended with the age of
Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force.
Sulla had ...
, or 82BC.
The surviving fragments of his work were collected by
Hermann Peter. The largest fragment is preserved in
Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, or ...
, and concerns a single combat between
T. Manlius Torquatus and a
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
.
Legacy
Quadrigarius's work was considered very important, especially for the contemporary history he narrates. From its sixth book onward,
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...
's ''
History of Rome
The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced m ...
'' used Quadrigarius and
Valerius Antias
Valerius Antias ( century BC) was an ancient Roman annalist whom Livy mentions as a source. No complete works of his survive but from the sixty-five fragments said to be his in the works of other authors it has been deduced that he wrote a chroni ...
as major sources, (if not uncritically). He is cited by Aulus Gellius, and he was probably the "Clodius" mentioned in
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
's ''Life of Numa''.
The judgment of his prose has varied. Some considered that it was his lively style which ensured his survival in various extracts; but more perhaps would agree with
Fronto that his language was pure and colloquial (“puri ac prope cotidiani sermonis”), and that it benefited from its straightforwardness, and absence of archaisms.
[M von Albrecht, ''A History of Roman Literature'' (1997) p. 385]
See also
*
Lucius Coelius Antipater Lucius Coelius Antipater was a Roman jurist and historian. He is not to be confused with Coelius Sabinus, the Coelius of the Digest. He was a contemporary of C. Gracchus (b. c. 123); L. Crassus, the orator, was his pupil.
Style
He was the first ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
* W. Kierdorf in ''Brill's New Pauly'' s.v. Claudius
30* A. Klotz, "Der Annalist Q. Claudius Quadrigarius." ''Rheinische Museum'' 91 (1942) 268–285.
* E. Badian, "The Early Historians" in T. Dorey (ed.) ''Latin Historians'' (1966) 1-38.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claudius Quadrigarius, Quintus
Latin historians
Quadrigarius, Quintus
Old Latin-language writers
1st-century BC Romans
1st-century BC historians