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Rh to important posts, wrote on Rome’s policy and wars in the East. Appian (v. supra) dealt with the wars waged under the early empire in the closing books of his work, which have not been preserved. Dio Cassius, a Bithynian who attained to the dignity of a second consulship as the colleague of Severus Alexander, wrote a history of Rome to the death of Elagabalus in 80 books. We possess only epitomes and excerpts of the portion dealing with events from 46 onwards, except for parts of the 78th and 79th books, in which Dio’s narrative of contemporary events is especially valuable. Herodian, a Syrian employed in the imperial service, wrote a history of the emperors from Commodus to Gordian III., which as the work of a contemporary is not without value, although the author had no historical insight. L. Marius Maximus compiled biographies of the emperors from Nerva to Elagabalus which, like those of Suetonius, contained much worthless gossip. His work was amongst the sources used in the compilation of the Historia Augusta (see further ), upon which we are obliged to rely for the history of the 3rd century This work consists in a series of lives of the emperors (including most of the pretenders to that title) from Hadrian to Carinus, professedly written by six authors, Spartianus, Vulcacius Gallicanus, Capitolinus, Lampridius, Trebellius Pollio, and Vopiscus, under Diocletian and Constantine. Modern criticism has shown that (at least in its present form) it is a compilation made towards the close of the 4th century; it is not even certain that any of the above-named writers really existed, and the documents inserted in the text are palpable forgeries. The earlier biographies, however, contain much authentic information, which seems to have been derived from a good contemporary source. The fragments of Dexippus, an Athenian who successfully defended his native town against the Goths, throw much light on the barbaric invasions of the 3rd century. Under Diocletian and his successors ( 289–321) were delivered twelve Panegyrics by Eumenius and other court rhetoricians which possess slight historical value. The history of the final struggle between church and empire is told from the Christian point of view by the author of the De mortibus persecutorum—perhaps Lactantius, the tutor of Crispus. Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History and Life of Constantine give an ex parte version of the events which they relate; the first of two tracts published under the name of the Anonymus Valesianus furnishes a brief contemporary narrative of the period 305–37, without Christian prepossessions; while the lost work of Praxagoras treated the history of Constantine from the pagan standpoint. The most important historian of the 4th century was Ammianus Marcellinus, a native of Antioch and an officer in the imperial guard, who continued the work of Tacitus (in Latin) to the death of Valens. We possess the last eighteen books of his history which cover the years 353–78. Two compendia of imperial history pass under the name of Aurelius Victor, the Caesares, or lives of the emperors from Augustus to Julian, and the Epitome de Caesaribus (not by the same author,) which goes down to Theodosius I. Similar works are the Breviarum of Eutropius (secretary of state under Valens) and the still more brief epitome of Festus. The writings of the Emperor Julian and of the rhetoricians Libanius, Themistius and Eunapius—the last-named continued the history of Dexippus to 404—are of great value for the latter part of the 4th century They wrote as pagans, while the Christian version of events is given by the three orthodox historians Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret, and the Arian Philostorgius, all of whom wrote in the 5th century. An imperial official, Zosimus, writing in the latter half of that century, gave a sketch of imperial history to 410; the latter part is valuable, being based on contemporary writings, e.g. those of the Egyptian Olympiodorus, of whose work some fragments are preserved. The bishops Synesius and Palladius, who lived under Arcadius and Theodosius II., furnish valuable information as to their own times; while the fragments of Priscus tell us much of Attila and the Hunnish invasions. Mention must also be made of the poets and letter-writers of the 4th and 5th centuries—Ausonius, Claudian, Symmachus, Paulinus of Nola, Sidonius Apollinaris, Prudentius, Merobaudes and others—from whose writings much historical information is derived. Cassiodorus, the minister of Theodoric, wrote a history of the Goths, transmitted to us in the Historia Gothorum of Jordanes (c. 550), which gives an account of the earlier barbaric invasions.

Several chronological works were compiled in the 4th and 5th centuries. It will suffice to name the Chronology of Eusebius (to 324), translated by Jerome and carried down to  378; the Chronicle of Prosper Tiro, based on Jerome and continued to 455; the Chronography of  354, an illustrated calendar containing miscellaneous information; and the works based on the so-called Chronica Constantinopolitana (not preserved), such as the Fasti of Hydatius (containing valuable notices of the period 379–468). Some minor chronological works such as the Chronicon Ravennae are published in Mommsen’s Chronica Minora. The Chronicon Paschale, primarily a table giving the cycle of Easter celebrations, was compiled in the 7th century

The Codes of Law, especially the Codex Theodosianus ( 438) and the Code of Justinian, as well as the Army List of the early 5th century, known as the Notitia Dignitatum, possess great historical value. For the inscriptions of the empire, which are of incalculable

importance as showing the working of the imperial system in its details, see ; the (q.v.) also throw much light on the dark places of history in the lack of other authorities. Egyptian papyri are not only instructive as to legal, economic and administrative history, but also (by the formulae employed in their dating) contribute to our general knowledge of events. The Zeitschrift für Papyrusforschung, edited by U. Wilcken, gives an account of progress in this branch of study.

.—Tillemont’s Histoire des empereurs (6 vols., 1690–1738), supplemented by his Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, a laborious and erudite compilation, furnished Gibbon with material for his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1788), which has never been superseded as a history of the entire imperial period, and has been rendered adequate for the purposes of the modern reader by Professor J. B. Bury s edition (1897–1900). The history of the empire has yet to be written in the light of recent discoveries. Mommsen’s fifth volume (Eng. tr., as Provinces of the Roman Empire, 1886) is not a narrative, but an account of Roman culture in the various provinces. C. Merivale’s History of the Romans under the Empire (8 vols., 1850–62, to Marcus Aurelius) is literary rather than scientific. H. Schiller’s Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit (1883–88) is a useful handbook. For the later period we have Bury’s History of the Later Roman Empire (1889), beginning from 395, and T. Hodgkin’s Italy and her Invaders (8 vols., 1880–99), which tells the story of the barbaric invasions at great length. The imperial constitution is described by Mommsen in the second volume of his Staatsrecht (v. supra); divergent views will be found in Herzog’s Geschichte und System der römischen Staatsverfassung (1884–91); the working of the imperial bureaucracy is treated by O. Hirschfeld, Die römischen Verwaltungsbeamten (1905). The Prosopographia Imperii Romani, compiled by Dessau and Klebs (1897–98), is a mine of information, as is the new edition of Pauly’s Realencyklopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft  (in progress). Von Domaszewski’s Geschichte der römischen Kaiser (2 vols., 1909) is popularly written and gives no references to authorities. See further the articles on individual emperors and provinces.

A general history of Rome to the barbarian invasions, popular in character and richly illustrated, was written in French by Victor Duruy (Eng. tr. in 6 vols., 1883–86). The 2nd, 3rd and 4th vols. of Leopold von Ranke’s Weltgeschichte deal with Roman history. An outline of Roman history is given by B. Niese in the 3rd vol. of Müller’s Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft  (3rd ed., 1906). A. H. J. Greenidge’s Roman Public Life (1901) is an excellent guide to Roman institutions. The principal authorities on Roman chronology are: Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (1825–26); Fynes-Clinton, Fasti Romani (1845) (a continuation of the same author’s Fasti Hellenici, 1830–41, which goes down to 14); Fischer, Römische Zeittafeln (1846); Mommsen, Römische Chronologie (2nd ed., 1859); Matzat, Römische Chronologie (1883–84) and Römische Zeittafeln (1889); Holzapfel, Römische Chronologie (1885); Soltau, Römische chronologie (1889); Unger, “Römische Zeitrechnung” in the 1st vol. of Müller’s Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft  (2nd ed., 1892). Goyau’s Chronologie de l’empire romain (Paris, 1891) is a useful handbook.

The history of the Roman commune as distinguished from the papacy during the middle ages has yet to be written, and only by the discovery of new documents can the difficulties of the task be completely overcome. Although very different in its origin, the Roman Republic gradually assumed the same form as the other Italian communes, and with almost identical institutions. But, owing to the special local conditions amid which it arose, it maintained a distinct physiognomy and character. The deserted Campagna surrounding the city checked any notable increase of trade or industry, and prevented the establishment of the gilds on the solid footing that elsewhere made them the basis and support of the commune. There was also the continual and oppressive influence of the empire, and, above all, the presence of the papacy, which often appeared to absorb the political vitality of the city. At such moments the commune seemed annihilated, but it speedily revived and reasserted itself. Consequently there are many apparent gaps in its history, and we have often extreme difficulty in discovering the invisible links connecting the visible fragments.

Even the aristocracy of Rome had a special stamp. In the other republics, with the exception of Venice, it was feudal, of German origin, and in perpetual conflict with the popular and commercial elements which sought its destruction. The history of municipal freedom in Italy lay in this struggle. But the infiltration of Teutonic and feudal elements broke up the