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Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus also
anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...
as was a Gallo-Roman historian from the
Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
ic
Vocontii The Vocontii (Gaulish: *''Uocontioi''; Greek: Οὐοκόντιοι, Οὐοκοντίων) were a Gallic people dwelling on the western foothills of the Alps during the Iron Age and the Roman period. The Vocontii settled in the region in the 3 ...
tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
in
Narbonese Gaul Gallia Narbonensis ( Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement) was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it wa ...
who lived during the reign of the
emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (emp ...
Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
. He was nearly contemporary with Livy.


Life

Pompeius Trogus's grandfather served under Pompey in his war against
Sertorius Quintus Sertorius (c. 126 – 73 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian peninsula. He had been a prominent member of the populist faction of Cinna and Marius. During the ...
. Owing to Pompey's influence, he was able to obtain Roman citizenship and his family adopted their patron's praenomen and nomen Gnaeus Pompeius. Trogus's father served under Julius Caesar as his secretary and interpreter. Trogus himself seems to have been a polymath.


Works

Following Aristotle and Theophrastus, Pompeius Trogus wrote books on the natural history of animals and plants. His principal work, however, was his 44-volume ''Philippic Histories and the Origin of the Whole World and the Places of the Earth'' ('' Historiae Philippicae et Totius Mundi Origines et Terrae Situs''), now lost, which, according to its surviving epitome, had as its principal theme the
Macedonian Empire Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...
founded by but functioned as a general history of all of the parts of the world which fell under the control 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 ...
and his successors, with extensive ethnographical and geographical digressions. Trogus began with Ninus, legendary founder of Nineveh, and ended at about the same point as Livy (AD 9). The development of the East from the Assyrians to the
Parthians Parthian may be: Historical * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...
is given extensive coverage while early Roman history and the history of the Iberian peninsula is briefly glossed in the last two books. The ''Philippic Histories'' is indebted to earlier
Greek historians Hellenic historiography (or Greek historiography) involves efforts made by Greeks to track and record historical events. By the 5th century BC, it became an integral part of ancient Greek literature and held a prestigious place in later Roman histo ...
such as
Theopompus Theopompus ( grc-gre, Θεόπομπος, ''Theópompos''; c. 380 BCc. 315 BC) was an ancient Greek historian and rhetorician. Biography Theopompus was born on the Aegean island of Chios. In early youth, he seems to have spent some time at Athen ...
(whose own ''Philippica'' may have suggested Trogus's title), Ephorus,
Timaeus Timaeus (or Timaios) is a Greek name. It may refer to: * ''Timaeus'' (dialogue), a Socratic dialogue by Plato * Timaeus of Locri, 5th-century BC Pythagorean philosopher, appearing in Plato's dialogue *Timaeus (historian) (c. 345 BC-c. 250 BC), Gree ...
, and Polybius. On the grounds that such a work was beyond the ability of a Gallo-Roman, it has generally been assumed that Pompeius Trogus did not gather his material directly from these Greek sources but from an existing compilation or translation by a Greek such as the ''Universal History'' compiled by
Timagenes Timagenes ( grc, Τιμαγένης) was a Greek writer, historian and teacher of rhetoric. He came from Alexandria, was captured by Romans in 55 BC and taken to Rome, where he was purchased by Faustus Cornelius Sulla, son of Sulla. It is said tha ...
of Alexandria.


Style

Pompeius Trogus's idea of history was more exacting than that of Sallust and Livy, whom he criticized for their habit of putting elaborate speeches into the mouths of the characters of whom they wrote.


On the Jews

Pompeius Trogus discusses the Jews in the context of the history of the Seleucid Empire. After from Tacitus, the summary of Pompeius Trogus includes the most extensive description of the Jews in classical Latin literature. His main overview of the Jews is divided into 3 parts: 1. The Antiquities of the Jews - includes a combination of 3 different traditions: Damascus tradition, Biblical tradition and the Egyptian-Greek tradition hostile to the
Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * E ...
2. A brief geographical description of the land of Judea. 3. A history of the Jews beginning with the
Persian period Yehud, also known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud Medinta (), was an administrative province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the region of Judea that functioned as a self-governing region under its local Jewish population. The province was a part ...
. Trogus used Greek sources for his composition. It is possible that the writing of the Jews he used the writings of
Timagenes Timagenes ( grc, Τιμαγένης) was a Greek writer, historian and teacher of rhetoric. He came from Alexandria, was captured by Romans in 55 BC and taken to Rome, where he was purchased by Faustus Cornelius Sulla, son of Sulla. It is said tha ...
and perhaps also by Posidonius.Menahem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, Vol. I, XLVII. Pompeius Trogus, pp. 332-333


Legacy

The original text of the ''Philippic Histories'' has been lost and is preserved only in excerpts by other authors (including Vopiscus, Jerome, and
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
) and in a loose epitome by the later historian Justin. Justin aimed only to preserve the parts he felt most important or interesting about Pompeius Trogus's work, with the last recorded event being the recovery of Roman standards from the Parthians in 20 BC. In the manuscripts of Justin's works, however, a separate series of summaries (') of the original work have been preserved. Even in their present mutilated state the works are often an important authority for the ancient history of the East. Pompeius Trogus's works on animals and plants were extensively quoted in the works of Pliny the Elder.


Notes


References


Citations


Bibliography

* * .


External links


''Prologi'' of Pompeius Trogus's work
at the Tertullian Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Pompeius Trogus, Gnaeus Latin historians Gaulish people Celts 1st-century BC Gallo-Roman people People from Gallia Narbonensis 1st-century BC historians Trogus, Gnaeus