lots 



QUINTUS CLAUDIUS, QUADRIGARIUS. 



QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS. 



1016 



emperor Zenou or Anastasius, and that he was a contemporary of 

 Tryphiodorus and Colutlius, wboae poems were contained in the same 

 manuscript in which that of Quintus was discovered. In confirma- 

 tion of this opinion we may refer to lib. xii., 335, &c., where Calchac 

 is represented as foretelling the greatness of Rome, in a manner which 

 can only apply to the latter period of the Roman emperors (comp. 

 vi. 533). 



His poem, which is called 'Honieri Paralipomena," or ' Posthomerica,' 

 (for the original manuscript has no title), contains in fourteen books 

 those events of the Trojan war which are not described in the Iliad, 

 and it is intended to be a completion and continuation of Homer. The 

 source from which the poet derived his materials are chiefly the 

 so-called cyclic poets. In style and language he imitated the Homeric 

 poems ; but an accumulation of single beauties, and the deficiencies of 

 the work as an artistical whole, betray the age of the author. 



There are several manuscripts of the poem of Quintus, but all seem 

 to be more or less correct copies of that discovered by Bessarion. 

 The first edition of Quintus, together with Tryphiodorus and Coluthus, 

 was printed at Venice by Aldus (about 1505). A new edition, with 

 a Latin translation by Rhodomannus, appeared in 1604, at Hanover. 

 la the edition of De Pauw (Lugd. Bat., 1734) the translation of Rho- 

 domannus was reprinted. In 1783, Tychsen published a very good 

 dissertation on Quintus and his poem, which was followed in 1807 

 by a new and much improved edition of the text of the ' Posthomerica ' 

 of Quintus Smyrnseus. The second volume, which was to contain the 

 commentary, has never been published. The poem of Quintus is 

 included with those of Hesiod, &c., published by Didot, Paris, 1840. 

 It has been translated into French by R. Tourlet (Paris, 1800, in 2 

 Tola.). In 1821 there appeared at Oxford 'Select Translations from 

 the Greek of Quintua Smyrnams,' by Alexander Dyce. (Compare 

 Kpitzner, ' Observatiouea critic, et grammat. in Quinti Smyrnaii 

 Posthomerica,' Lipsias, 1837.) 



Besides the ' Posthomerica/ Brunck (' Analect.,' ii. p. 475), attributes 

 to Quintus some verses in the ' Labours of Hercules." 



QUINTUS CLAUDIUS, QUADRIGA'RIUS, a Roman historian of 

 the time of Sulla, wrote the ' Annals of Rome," of which only a few 

 fragments remain, down to the twenty-third book, in the shape of 

 quotations found in Aulus Gellius, Nonius, Priscianus, and other 

 ancient writers. These fragments were collected and inserted by 

 Antonius Augustinm, bishop of Tarracona, in his ' Fragmenta Histori- 

 corum,' Antwerp, 1595. Quintus Claudius was one of the authors 

 whom Livy had before him in compiling his history ; and Livy quotes 

 him in his eighth book (chap. 19). 



QUINTUS CU'RTIUS RUFUS. Nothing whatever is known from 

 extrinsic evidence of the personal hiatory of Quintus Curtius or of the 

 time when he lived ; nor is there a single passage in hia work from 

 which anything can be deduced with certainty. A passage in the 



tenth book (c. 9) appears to allude to some great calamity that had 

 threateued the Roman state, and which had been averted by the 

 emperor (princeps suus), but the name of the emperor is not stated. 

 In the absence of all proof, it has been supposed that this Curtius may 

 be the rhetorician of whom Suetonius is said to have treated, though 

 that part of his work on rhetoricians is not extant ; or that he may be 

 the Curtius who was proctor and pro-consul of Africa under Tiberius. 

 (Tacit., 'Ann.,' xi. 20.) Cicero also speaks of several persons of the 

 name of Curtius, and he names of them Quintus. But there is no 

 proof that any of these persons is the Curtius who wrote the 'History 

 of Alexander,' though the rhetorical style of the work would justify us 

 in assigning it with some degree of probability to a rhetorician. One 

 of the best examples of the declamatory style of Curtius is the well- 

 known speech of the Scythian ambassadors to Alexander (vii. c. 8). 



The work of Quintus Curtius is entitled ' De Rebus Alexandra 

 Magui Regis Macedonum," or the ' Acts of Alexander the Great, King 

 of the Macedonians.' It was originally in ten books, of which the first 

 two are lost ; the third book begins with the attack of Alexander on 

 Celaense. There seems also to be something wanting at the end of the 

 fifth and the beginning of the sixth book ; and perhaps there are some 

 omissions in the teuth book also. There are various modern supple- 

 ments to Curtius, but that of Freinshemius, who has laboriously 

 supplied the first two books, appears to be the best. 



The most opposite judgments have been passed on the work of 

 Curtius. Some prefer him to Tacitus, and others place him, as to 

 style, on a level with the writers of the Augustan age. Others again 

 allow him little merit. Considered as an historian of Alexander, ho 

 was evidently deficient in essential qualities : he was not a critical 

 writer, and he was very ignorant of geography. His style is per- 

 spicuous and easy, though rhetorical and ornate ; and if he did belong 

 to a late age (which is at least doubtful), he wrote better than his 

 contemporaries. The work accordingly is much more suitable for 

 elementary instruction than many other Roman writers. Though 

 somewhat diffuse, and not free from affectation of ornament in his 

 style, the narrative of Curtius is clear and connected, neither encum- 

 bered with extraneous matter nor interrupted by digressions. Arrian 

 himself does not keep closer to his subject than the Roman historian 

 of Alexander. 



The editions of Curtius are very numerous ; that of Miitzell, Berlin, 

 1843, is one of the best. The earliest are those of Home, 1470, and of 

 Venice, 1470 or 1471. The edition of Pitiscus, 8vo, Hague, 1708, 

 contains the supplement of Freinshemius and a copious commentary. 

 The translations are almost as numerous as the editions : there arc 

 translations into Italian, Spanish, French, German, English, and other 

 modern languages. The first English translation was by Brende, 4to, 

 London, 1553, 1561, 1584, 1592, 1614; 8vo, 1570; and the latest by 

 Digby, 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1714, 1726, revised by Young in 1747. 



END OF VOLUME IV. 



BBADBURV AND EVAN3, PHISTEHS, WIHTEFRURS. 



