Free The Historians of Late Antiquity by David Rohrbacher Page A

perhaps as a notarius , or scribe, a common position for those of humble birth (Teitler 1985; Jones 1964: 572–5), or perhaps, given his detailed knowledge of somewhat trivial affairs around the empire, in the scrinium epistolarum , the department which drafted replies to petitions from local authorities (Bird 1984: 7–8). At Sirmium, Victor presumably served under the praetorian prefect Anatolius, whom he praises for his skill in managing the system of public post-roads (13.5–6; cf. Amm. 19.11.2–3). Victor’s frequent mention of taxation, particularly toward the end of the book and often with personal comments appended, leads Bird to suggest that he likely served as a financial officer under the prefect (Bird 1984: 9–10).
    Ammianus tells us (21.10.6) that Julian made Victor governor of Pannonia Secunda, a promotion which included membership in the senate and the elevated rank of clarissimus , and also honored him with a bronze statue. Julian’s usurpation was risky, and he would certainly have been pleased to have gained the allegiance of any high-ranking civil servant, especially one whom Ammianus describes as “worthy of emulation because of his temperance.” But the special honor of the statue may suggest that it was Victor’s literary accomplishment that had caught Julian’s eye. Bird points out that Victor’s moralizing tone and excoriation of the tax collectors would have matched Julian’s predilections, although his complaints about the military might not have coincided as well with the views of the emperor (Bird 1984: 12). The length of Victor’s term in office is unknown, but he must have left before 28 May 365, when another governor is attested (Bird 1984: 12).
    In addition to the governorship, Victor held the position of prefect of the city of Rome, under the emperor Theodosius I. His holding of the prefecture is clear both from Ammianus (21.10.6) and from the inscription on the base of a statue which Victor himself dedicated to the emperor (ILS 2945). This prestigious position was highly sought after and therefore generally held for a limited tenure. Victor seems to have served from the end of 388 until the summer of 389 (Bird 1984: 13–14). Victor’s whereabouts in the more than twenty-five years which intervene between the holding of these two offices is unknown. He likely held some other office, perhaps the proconsulship of Africa (Bird 1984: 12–13).

Work
    The Historiae Abbreviatae , commonly known as the De Caesaribus , survives only in two late manuscripts, bound with two other short works which were falsely attributed to Victor. Of the three breviaria , or abridged histories, investigated here, Victor’s work was the first published, and in many ways it is the most ambitious and most original.
    The history covers the period from the reign of Augustus to the reign of Constantius. Victor probably began writing in 358, to judge from his mention of the earthquake in Nicomedia (16.12) which occurred in August of that year. Near the end of the book, Victor says that Constantius had been ruling as Augustus for twenty-three years, which implies a date of publication after September 360 (42.20). The last section of the book is rather curious. Victor first lavishes the emperor Constantius with praise, but then ends the work with a pair of sentences which sharply criticize Constantius’ selection of advisors and subordinates. Bird has suggested that the early panegyrical remarks on the emperor marked the original ending to the work, and the more critical remarks were added after the outbreak of civil war between Constantius and Julian in the summer of 361 (Bird 1994: xi).
    The major, perhaps sole, written source for Victor’s history was the work known as “Enmann’s Kaisergeschichte,” or the KG . The KG , which is no longer extant, was first inferred by Alexander Enmann on the basis of similarities between Victor, Eutropius, and the Historia Augusta (Enmann 1884; see also Cohn 1884; Barnes