A Survey Of Florus' Historiography

Florus (Lucius Annaeus, c.74-c.150A.D.) was a Roman historian, rhetor and poet born in Africa. His Epitome of Roman History, said as an abstract of Livy by many authors, was very popular during the Middle Ages, but has been criticized by many modern authors and has almost disappeared completely. This dissertation is supposed to introduce Florus and his Epitome to Chinese academia.At the beginning there is an introduction telling of the study on Florus and its editions used here. The first chapter gives a survey of all Florus'life and his works. The second chapter begins with the origin of the Roman historiography, then the sources of Florus, so as to find the origin of Florus'historiography, and analyze whether the Epitome is an abstract of Livy. The third chapter focuses on the styles of the Epitome—brief, rhetorical language, four stages of Roman history; and since his division of four stages has some problems, they are analyzed at the end of this chapter. The fourth chapter draws an outline of the influence of Florus. The fifth chapter introduces his two records of the"Seres"and"silk", and gives a brief review of the relationship between Rome and China.The conclusion is, as though there are some problems in Florus'Epitome, but even by principles of modern historiography, Florus as a Roman historian still has some values and definite status, especially because his work mainly comes from Livy, so it is useful for us to study the lost volumes of Livy.