Nummius Aemilianus Dexter
[Lössl, Josef (2016). â]
Dexter, Nummius Aemilianus
€ť. ''Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle
The Medieval Chronicle Society is an international and interdisciplinary organization founded to facilitate the work of scholars interested in medieval annals and chronicles, or more generally medieval historiography. It was founded in 1999 and in ...
''. Brill Online
Brill Academic Publishers () is a Dutch international academic publisher of books, academic journals, and databases founded in 1683, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the Netherlands. Founded in the South Holland city of Leiden, ...
. ( 380–395), often erroneously called Flavius Lucius Dexter,
[Garrido Valls, David (2016), â]
Omnimoda Historia
€ť. ''Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle''. Brill Online. was a figure of the late fourth century, reported as a historian, and a friend of
St Jerome
Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome.
He is best known for his translation of the Bible i ...
. He was the son of
St Pacian, an imperial office-holder, and dedicatee of a work of Jerome, the ''
De Viris Illustribus''.
He also served as
proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority.
In the Roman Republic, military ...
of
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
under emperor
Theodosius I
Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...
(379–395) and hold the position of
praetorian prefect of Italy
The praetorian prefecture of Italy (, in its full form (until 356) ) was one of four praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided since the first half of the 4th century. It comprised the Italian peninsula, the western Bal ...
in 395.
Dexter was the supposed author of a chronicle, called the ''Omnimoda Historia'' or the ''Chronicle of Pseudo-Dexter''. It was in fact a forgery, one of a number of
Jerónimo Román de la Higuera's (1538–1611), who published a collection of false documents in 1594 attributed to "Flavius Lucius Dexter" (alongside "Marcus Maximus" and "Eutrandus").
The suspect authorship has been widely known since the work of the Spanish bibliographer
Nicolás Antonio
Nicolás Antonio (31 July 1617 – 13 April 1684) was a Spanish bibliographer born in Seville.
Biography
After taking his degree in Salamanca (1636–1639), he returned to his native city, wrote his treatise ''De Exilio'' (which was not printe ...
, the ''Censura de historias fabulosas'', published in 1742.
Doubts were already cast on these false chronicles before 1600, but controversy continued late into the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century there were still references to the Chronicle as genuine, e.g. its inclusion in Volume 31 of the ''
Patrologia Latina
The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published betwe ...
''.
There is a second work attributed to him, ''In prophetam Danielis de quatuor animalibus'' ("Against the prophet Daniel on the four animals").
The real Dexter was the author of a genuine work known as the ''Omnimoda Historia'' (which St. Jerome refers to in ''On Illustrious Men'' 132, but claims he had not read it) but while historians are agreed that it is to be distinguished from the ''Chronicle of Pseudo-Dexter'', the exact nature of the work is debated. Given Jerome's similar phraseology in reference to Eusebius' ''Chronicle'', the work has been seen as either a continuation or translation of that work.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dexter, Nummius Aemilianus
444 deaths
4th-century Romans
5th-century Romans
Literary forgeries
Romans from Hispania