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Justin and Pompeius Trogus

A Study of the Language of Justin's "Epitome" of Trogus

JC Yardley author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Toronto Press

Published:6th Dec '03

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Justin and Pompeius Trogus cover

'Yardley's scholarship is entirely sound ... This book should prove of great interest to professional scholars of the Classics and ancient history.' -- Paul Murgatroyd, Department of Classics, McMaster University

Yardley also demonstrates how much Trogus was influenced by his contemporary Livy as well as other Roman authors such as Sallust and Caesar, and how the Epitome reveals the influence of Roman poetry, especially the work of Virgil.

Around 200AD, Marcus Junianus Justinus produced an abridged or 'epitomized' version of the Philippic Histories of the Augustan historian Pompeius Trogus. In doing so, he omitted all he did not find either intrinsically interesting or of use for historical examples. Over the centuries that followed, the abridgement eclipsed the original work in popularity, to the extent that Trogus' original work vanished and only Justin's version survived.

In this investigation of the language of the Epitome, the first in almost a century, J.C. Yardley examines the work to establish how much of the text belongs to Trogus, and how much to Justin. His study compares words and expressions used in the Epitome with the usage of other Roman authors, and establishes areas where diction is similar to Augustan-era Latin and less in use in Justin's time. Yardley's extensive analysis reveals that there is more of Justin in the work than is often supposed, which may have implications for the historical credibility of the document. Yardley also demonstrates how much Trogus was influenced by his contemporary Livy as well as other Roman authors such as Sallust and Caesar, and how the Epitome reveals the influence of Roman poetry, especially the work of Virgil.

ISBN: 9780802087669

Dimensions: 235mm x 161mm x 28mm

Weight: 640g

305 pages