''Anonymus Valesianus'' (or ''Excerpta Valesiana'') is the conventional title of a compilation of two fragmentary
vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
chronicle
A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...
s, named for its modern editor,
Henricus Valesius, who published the texts for the first time in 1636, together with his first printed edition of the ''Res Gestae'' of
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...
. The two fragments are not related, one being from the fourth century and the other from the sixth. The only connection between the two fragments is their presence in the same manuscript and their history of being edited together.
[Brian Croke, "Latin Historiography and the Barbarian Kingdoms", in G. Marasco (ed.), ''Greek and Roman Historiography in Late Antiquity: Fourth to Sixth Century A.D.'' (Brill, 2003), pp. 352–358.] When Henricus' brother re-edited the ''Anonymus'' in an edition of Ammianus Marcellinus in 1681, it was the first time that the two excerpts were clearly separated.
The work of the Anonymus Valesianus is a debated issue of historiography for more than one hundred years, all the more so as both the identity of the authors and the circumstances of the compilation of the work are obscure.
Manuscripts
The texts exist only in a single ninth-century manuscript kept in Berlin. When the manuscript turned up in the Jesuit
Collège de Clermont
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...
in Paris in the form of a parchment bundle of 34 flimsy sheets in nine different hands, it was re-ordered according to the hands and re-bound. The collection appeared in the catalogue of the Jesuit college at the occasion of the sale of the library by auction in 1764. The collection was bought by a certain
Johannes Meermann and transferred to the Hague (becoming Codex Meermannus 794). Following the death of Meermann, the collection passed to an English collector, Sir
Thomas Phillipps
Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (2 July 1792 – 6 February 1872), was an English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. He was an illegitimate son of a textile manufactu ...
(Codex Phillippsianus 1885). Later, through the heirs, it was taken by the
German State Library in Berlin in 1887 where it is accessible today under the
shelfmark
A shelfmark is a mark in a book or manuscript that denotes the cupboard or bookcase where it is kept as well as the shelf and possibly even its location on the shelf. The closely related term pressmark (from press, meaning cupboard) denotes only t ...
Ms. Phill. 1885.
The ''Anonymus Valesianus'' II was used in a compilation of excerpts in
Vat. Pal. lat. 927. This does not derive directly from the Berlin manuscript.
[
]
Excerpts
Anonymus Valesianus I
''Anonymus Valesianus'' I (or ''Excerptum Valesianum'' I), sometimes given the separate conventional title ''Origo Constantini Imperatoris'' ("The Lineage of the Emperor Constantine") possibly dates from around 390, and is generally regarded as providing a reliable source. The beginning of Origo already looks like the final sentence of an account on the rule of Diocletian
Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...
and Maximian
Maximian (; ), nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar (title), Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocleti ...
. In 1963 Arnaldo Momigliano
Arnaldo Dante Momigliano (5 September 1908 – 1 September 1987) was an Italian historian of classical antiquity, known for his work in historiography, and characterised by Donald Kagan as "the world's leading student of the writing of history ...
summarized the results of scholarship on Origo Constantini in the words that "All is in doubt about the first part of the Anonymus Valesianus". There are questions left, with regard to the date of Origo's editions, sources, and revisions, which have not yet found convincing answers.
Anonymus Valesianus II
''Anonymus Valesianus'' II (or ''Excerptum Valesianum'' II), sometimes referred to as the ''Pars Posterior'', written after 526 and probably between 540 and 550. The text is headed ''item ex libris chronicorum inter cetera'', implying either that it was excerpted from several chronicles or from a chronicle entitled ''Libri chronicorum'' (or perhaps a ''Chronica'' in several books).[ The text mostly deals with the reign of the Ostrogothic king ]Theodoric the Great
Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526 ...
. It is sometimes called the ''Chronica Theodericana''.[
The identity of the author and the circumstances of the compilation of the Pars Posterior is obscure, however a few scholars think it "based on a no longer extant chronicle by the bishop of Ravenna, Maximianus".
The Pars Posterior consists of 60 chapters and it presents the chain of events as a chronicle from Chapter 36 to 59: from the rule of Emperor Zeno, through the decline of the power of ]Odoacer
Odoacer ( – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube who deposed the Western Roman child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became the ruler of Italy (476–493). Odoacer' ...
, up to the succession of Theodoric the Great
Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526 ...
in 493. In the next section, from Chapter 60 to 79, the description of the rule of Theodoric the Great
Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526 ...
– the Italian ruler of Germanic origin – can be found. Besides the description of political events the author dwells on portraying the major virtues of the ruler through different narratives. In the closing section (Chapter 80 to 96) the author describes the tragic years of Theodoric's rule.
The work was used by Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...
as a major source for the Roman perspective on the Ostrogothic
The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...
period in his '' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''.
Further reading
* James Noel Adams, ''The Text and Language of a Vulgar Latin Chronicle (Anonymus Valesianus II)'' (University of London), 1976;
* S.J.B. Barnish, "The Anonymus Valesianus II as a source for the last years of Theoderic", ''Latomus'', 42 (1983:572-596).
* Tamás Kovács, "Some remarks on Anonymus Valesianus' Pars Posterior", ''Chronica: Annual of the Institute of History'', 13 (2017, 5–16).
* (ed.), ''Anonymus Valesianus, Origo Constantini''. Part I : Text und Kommentar'', (Trierer Historische Förschungen) Trier 1987.''
* Ingemar König, ''Aus der Zeit Theodorichs des Großen: Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar einer anonymen Quelle'', Darmstadt 1997.
* Isabel Lasala Navarro, Pilar López Hernando, "Chronica Theodericiana, comentario, notas y traduccion", ''Habis'', ''40 (2009:251-275)
External links
''Origo Constantini. Nagy Constantinus császár eredete''
(in Latin-Hungarian).
(in English).
(in Latin).
* ttps://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Excerpta_Valesiana/home.html LacusCurtius: Anonymous Valesianus(English and Latin text with notes and commentary).
References
{{Authority control
4th-century books in Latin
Constantine the Great
Italian chronicles
4th-century writers in Latin
6th-century books in Latin
6th-century history books
Ostrogothic Kingdom
9th-century manuscripts
1636 books
Latin historians
Theoderic the Great
Works of unknown authorship
6th-century writers in Latin
6th-century Italian writers