Granius Licinianus (active in the 2nd century AD) 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 lette ...
author of historical and encyclopedic works that survive only in fragments. He most likely lived at the time of
Hadrian.
History
Granius compiled a "novel" narrative epitome of Roman history, drawing mainly on
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a 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 traditional founding in ...
and
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisan ...
, that ran to at least 36 books, "keen on anecdotes and curious details." That he had his own views on
historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...
should not be doubted: in his opinion, Sallust ought not to be read as an historian at all, but as an orator. Granius covered the history of Rome from the early times at least to the death of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
; the assumption of this as an end-point of his history has sometimes caused him to be identified with
Granius Flaccus Granius Flaccus (active in the 1st century BC) was an antiquarian and scholar of Roman law and religion, probably in the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus.
Religious scholar
Granius wrote a book ''De indigitamentis'' ("On Forms of Address"), on th ...
and his life to be dated to the 1st century BC. Though riddled with ''
lacunae,'' Granius's Book 35 presents one of the most informative accounts of the siege of Rome during the
civil war of 87 BC, and his history regularly provides illuminative details that complement more complete histories. Some fragments of the books relating to the years 163-78 BC are preserved in a manuscript which was discovered in 1853 and survives as a double ''
palimpsest
In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...
,'' that is, a 5th-century copy was overwritten in the 6th century with a Latin grammatical treatise and again in the 11th century with a
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
translation of
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of ...
's sermons. (
Add. 17212)
Granius also wrote ''Cenae Suae'' ("My Dinner Parties"), an encyclopedic work that displayed his
antiquarian interests in the manner of
Aulus Gellius and his ''Attic Nights''.
Editions
*K.A. Pertz (1857), ''
editio princeps'';
[Arnaldo Momigliano, "Jacob Bernays," in ''A.D. Momigliano: Studies on Modern Scholarship'' (University of California Press, 1994), p. 130.downloadable.]
*Seven Bonn students (1858)
*M. Flemisch, ''Granius Licinianus. Eine text-, sprach- und quellenkritische Untersuchung'' (1899/1900, 1902, 1904)
*See also JN Madvig, ''Kleine philologische Schriften'' (1875)
*N. Criniti (Leipzig, 1981). For introduction, critical commentary (in Italian), and full bibliography, see also Criniti's "Granio Liciniano," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' 2.34.1 (1993), pp. 120–, limited previe
online.
Commentary
*Italian translation and commentary
Commentary or commentaries may refer to:
Publications
* ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee
* Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...
by B. Scardigli, with A. R. Berardi (Florence, 1983).
References
*
External links
Translation
of Granius Licinianus's ''History'' a
Attalus.org
a
Tertullian.org
{{Authority control
2nd-century historians
2nd-century Romans
Latin historians
Silver Age Latin writers
Ancient Roman antiquarians
Licinianus