De Prodigiisthe name prefixed to a fragment entitled
De Prodigiis or
Prodigiorum Libellus, containing a record for many years of
those startling phenomena classed by the Romans under the general designation of
Prodigia or
Ostenta, which were universally believed
to be miraculous manifestations of divine power, and to be intended as solemn warnings of
coming events. The series is arranged in regular chronological order, and extends from the
consulship of Scipio and Laelius,
B. C. 190, to the consulship of
Fabius and Aelius,
B. C. 11. The materials are derived in a great
measure from Livy, whose very words are frequently employed; and although we can in some
places detect deviations from the narrative of the historian, these consist chiefly in
repetitions, and in variations with regard to dates, discrepancies which may very probably
have arisen from the interpolations or carelessness of transcribers. With regard to the
compiler we know absolutely nothing, not even the country to which he belonged, nor the age
when he flourished. He is mentioned by no ancient writer, and there is no internal evidence
to guide us. The style is upon the whole tolerably pure, but certainly does not belong to
the Augustan age. Vossius supposes that the author lived before Orosius, and Scaliger
believes that he was consulted by St. Jerome; but no substantial arguments have been adduced
in support of these assertions.
Editions
No MS. of Obsequens is known to exist. The first edition, printed by Aldus in 1508, was
taken from a codex belonging to Jocundus of Verona, but this has disappeared, and no other
has ever been discovered.
About the middle of the sixteenth century, Conrad Woolfhart, professor at Basle,
who assumed the appellation of Conradus Lycosthenes, published a supplement, in which he
collected from Livy, Dionysius, Entropius, and other authorities, the prodigies
which had been chronicled from the foundation of the city until the period when the
fragment of Obsequens commences, making at the same time additions from the same sources to
the text of Obsequens himself. From this time for-ward the original and the supplement have
been usually printed toether, and care must be taken in every cast to keep the two portions
perfectly distinct.
The Editio Princeps of Obsequens was published. as we have already
stated, by Aldus, 8vo. Vent. 1508 (reprinted 1518), in a volume containing also the
epistles of the younger Pliny.
The second edition was that of Beatus Rhenanus, 8vo. Argentorat. 1514, in a volume
containing also the epistles of Pliny, Aurelius Victor, De Viris
Illustribus, and Suetonius De Claris Grammaticis ef
Rhetoribus.
The third was from the press of Robert Stephens, 8vo. Paris, 1529, and, like the two
former, combined with the epistles of Pliny.
The first edition. which contained the supplement of Lycosthenes, was that which appeared
at Basle, 8vo. 1552.
The best are those of Scheffer, 8vo. Amst. 1679, and of Oudendorp, 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1720, especially the latter, to which we may add that of Hase, subjoined to the
Valerius Maximus un Lemaire's edition of the Latin classics, 8vo. Paris, 1823, and
containing the commentaries of both Scheffer and Oudendorp. No MS. having been employed
since the time of Aldus, all the alterations introduced from time to time into the text are
purely conjectural.
Translation
We have translations into French by George de la Bouthiere, 8vo. Lyons,
1555, and by Victor Verger, 12mo. Paris, 1825, and into Italian
by Damiano Maraffi, 8vo. Lione, 1554. The first and last of the above contain also
translations of the three books by Polydore Virgil on the same topic