Justin (historian)

Template:Short description

Justin (Template:Langx;Template:Refn fl. Template:Circa century AD) was a Latin writer and historian who lived under the Roman Empire.

File:Iustinus - ita, negli anni dil signore MCCCCLXXVII ali giorni X semptembris - 913806 Scan00008.jpg

Epitome historiarum Trogi Pompeii

Template:Anchor

Life

Almost nothing is known of Justin's personal history, his name appearing only in the title of his work. He must have lived after Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus, whose work he excerpted, and his references to the Romans and Parthians having divided the world between themselves would have been anachronistic after the rise of the Sassanians in the third century. His Latin appears to be consistent with the style of the second century. Ronald Syme, however, argues for a date around 390, immediately before the compilation of the Augustan History, and dismisses anachronisms and the archaic style as unimportant, as he asserts that readers would have understood Justin's phrasing to represent Trogus' time, and not his own.Template:Sfnp

Works

Template:Main Justin was the author of an epitome of Trogus' expansive Liber Historiarum Philippicarum, or Philippic Histories, a history of the kings of Macedon, compiled in the time of Augustus. Due to its numerous digressions, this work was retitled by one of its editors, Historia Philippicae et Totius Mundi Origines et Terrae Situs, or Philippic History and Origins of the Entire World and All of its Lands. Justin's preface explains that he aimed to collect the most important and interesting passages of that work, which has since been lost. Some of Trogus' original arguments (Template:Lang) are preserved in various other authors, such as Pliny the Elder. Trogus' main theme was the rise and history of the Macedonian Empire, and like him, Justin permitted himself considerable freedom of digression, producing an idiosyncratic anthology rather than a strict epitome.