Eutropius in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities
A Latin historian of the fourth century. He bore arms under
Julian in his expedition against the Parthians, as he
himself informs us (x. 16), and is thought to have risen to
senatorial rank. Suidas makes him of Italian origin, while
some modern writers, on the other hand, advance the
hypothesis that he was a native of Gaul, and was perhaps
identical with the Eutropius to whom some of the letters of
Symmachus are addressed. The manuscripts give him the title
of Vir Cl., which may stand for either Vir Clarissimus or
Vir Consularis, but which in either sense indicates an
advancement to some of the highest offices in the State. He
wrote several works, of which the only one remaining is an
abridgment of Roman history (Breviarium ab Urbe Condita), in
ten books. It is a brief and dry outline, without either
elegance or ornament, yet containing certain facts which are
nowhere else mentioned. The work commences with the
foundation of the city, and is carried on to the death of
Jovian, A.D. 364. At the close of this work Eutropius
announces his intention of continuing the narrative in a
more elevated style, inasmuch as he will have to treat of
great personages still living. It does not appear that he
ever carried this plan into execution. The best editions are
those of Grosse (Halle, 1813), Hartel (Berlin, 1872), and of
Droysen (Berlin, 1878). There is a lexicon to Eutropius by
Eichert (Breslau, 1850). On his style see Sorn, Die
Sprachgebrauch des Eutropius, pt. i. (Halle in Austria,
1888), pt. ii. (Laibach, 1889). The Breviarium was
translated into Greek by one Paeanius, whose version is
still in great part extant, and is edited in Droysen's
edition of Eutropius. See Duncker, De Paeanio Eutropii
Interprete (Greiffenberg, 1880).
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