Julius Obsequens was a Roman writer active in the 4th or early 5th centuries AD, during

late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

. His sole known work is the ''Prodigiorum liber'' (''Book of Prodigies''), a tabulation of the wonders and portents that had occurred in the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

and early

Principate The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...

in the years 24912 BC. The material for the ''Prodigiorum liber'' was largely excerpted from the 1st century AD ''

Ab Urbe Condita Libri The work called ( en, From the Founding of the City), sometimes referred to as (''Books from the Founding of the City''), is a monumental history of ancient Rome, written in Latin between 27 and 9 BC by Livy, a Roman historian. The wor ...

'' of the Augustan historian

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 ...

, which chronicled the history of the Roman state from its origin to the beginning of the imperial period, though Julius used it selectively and sometimes added interpretations of the omens and incidents he included. There is a common view that Julius only knew Livy's text wholly or in part from an epitome, but there is scant evidence of this. The work was first

printed Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...

by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

humanist Aldus Manutius in 1508, after a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

belonging to Jodocus of Verona (now lost). Of great importance was the edition by the

Basle , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...

humanist

Conrad Lycosthenes Conrad Lycosthenes (8 August 151825 March 1561), born Conrad Wolffhart, was an Alsatian humanist and encyclopedist. Deacon of Saint Leonard in Basel, professor of grammar and dialectics, Lycosthenes had a passion for the study of nature and geop ...

(1552), trying to reconstruct lost parts and illustrating the text with wood-cuts. Later editions were printed by Johannes Schefferus (Amsterdam, 1679), Franciscus Oudendorp (Leiden, 1720) and

Otto Jahn Otto Jahn (; 16 June 1813, in Kiel – 9 September 1869, in Göttingen), was a German archaeologist, philologist, and writer on art and music. Biography After the completion of his university studies at Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel, ...

(1853, with the '' periochae'' of Livy). The text of Julius Obsequens frequently makes reference to unusual astronomical and meteorological events as portentous signs like meteor showers,

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

s, and sun dogs, alongside

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

s, aberrant births,

haruspicy In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex (plural haruspices; also called aruspex) was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy (''haruspicina''), the inspection of the entrails ('' exta''—hence also extispicy ...

, and sweating, crying, or bleeding statues. After the alleged

Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 ...

in 1947, Harold T. Wilkins among others, interpreted Julius Obsequens as preserving ancient reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Since Julius wrote some four centuries after the latest of the events he describes, his is not an eye-witness account, and for most of his subject matter his source Livy was himself neither an eye-witness nor even a contemporary.

References

* Julio Obsecuente, ''Libro de los Prodigios (restituido a su integridad, en beneficio de la Historia, por Conrado Licóstenes)'', ed. Ana Moure Casas (Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas, 1990) * Giulio Ossequente, ''Il Libro dei prodigi'', ed. Solas Boncompagni (Rome: Edizioni Mediterranee, 1992) * Beyer, Jürgen, 'Obsequens, Julius', in ''Enzyklopädie des Märchens. Handwörterbuch zur historischen und vergleichenden Erzählforschung'', vol. 10 (Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2000–02), coll. 176-8 * David Engels, ''Das römische Vorzeichenwesen (753-27 v.Chr.). Quellen, Terminologie, Kommentar, historische Entwicklung'' (Stuttgart: Franz-Steiner, 2007), p. 221–235.

External links

Latin text of Prodigiorum Liber
at The Latin Library
English translation of Book of Prodigies, by Alex Nice
at ''attalus.org'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Obsequens, Julius Late Antique Latin-language writers Ancient Roman writers UFO sightings UFO writers 4th-century Romans 4th-century Latin writers Julii