L. Annaeus Florus
The epitomist of Roman history
c. AD 74 – c. AD 130
Florus — probably Lucius Annaeus Florus — lived in the early second century AD. His Epitome of Roman History condenses the entire sweep of Roman military history from Romulus to Augustus into two short books.
The work is rhetorical rather than analytical, treating Roman history as a biography of the state — infancy under the kings, adolescence in the early Republic, maturity in the age of conquest, old age in the civil wars. It was widely read in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as an introduction to Roman history.
A brief epitome of Roman history from Romulus to Augustus, organised around the metaphor of Rome's life-stages — infancy, youth, maturity, and senesce...