NOTES
LIFE OF EUTROPIUS
Of the life of Eutropius we know very little. Only once in his work does he mention himself, Bk. X, Ch. 16. He was proconsul in Asia in 371 A.D., and praetorian praefect 380-387 A.D. He is said to have been the secretary of the Emperor Constantine the Great.
The only one of his works that is extant is the Breviārium, a brief history of Rome from the founding of the city to the death of the Emperor Jovian, 364 A.D. He dedicated the work to the Emperor Valens, 364-378 A.D., composing it probably at the emperor’s request.
Through the republican period he follows Livy, whom he knows at first hand. Afterwards he takes Suetonius and the Augustan History for his guides. His style is simple and terse, and the diction is very good for the age in which the book was written. As a historian his judgment is cool and impartial. He makes some blunders, but mostly in the matter of dates. A Greek translation made by a certain Capito, a Lycian, is mentioned, but it has been lost. A later Greek version by Paeanius is extant.
Book I
Page 7.
Ch. 1.
Line 1. Rōmānum: note emphatic position.
Rōmulō: see the legend of Romulus and Remus in Ihne, p. 32; Livy, Bk. I, IV; Guerber, p. 140.