Sextus Aurelius Victor

Sextus Aurelius Victor, prefect of Pannonia about 360 (Amm. Marc. xxi. 10), possibly the same as the consul (jointly with Valentinian) in 373 and as the prefect of the city who is mentioned in an inscription of the time of Theodosius.

Four small historical works have been ascribed to him on more or less doubtful grounds:

1. Origo Gentis Romanae
2. De Viribus Illustribus Romae
3. De Caesaribus
4. De Vita et Moribus Imperatorum Romanorum excerpta ex Libris Sex. Aur. Victoris

The four have generally been published together under the name Historia Romana, but the fourth piece is a rechauffe of the third. The second was first printed at Naples about 1472, in 410, under the name of Pliny (the younger), and the fourth at Strassburg in 1505.

The first edition of all four was that of A Schottus (8vo, Antwerp, 1579). The most recent edition of the De Caesaribus is by FR Pichlmayr (Munich, 1892).

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.