Sexti Rufi Breviarium de Victoriis el Provinciis Populi
RomaniThe name prefixed to an abridgment of Roman History, entitled
Sexti
Rufi Breviarium de Victoriis el Provinciis Populi Romani, executed by command of
the emperor Valens, to whom it is dedicated. The prince had instructed the author to be
brief (
brevem fieri Clementia tua praecepit), and the injunction was
most scrupulously obeyed, for the events of more than eleven hundred years, from the
foundation of the city until the death of Jovianus, are compressed within the limits of
twenty-eight short chapters, couched in plain and unpretending language. A more lofty
exposition, however, of contemporary achievements is promised in the concluding sentence, "
Quam magno deinceps ore tua, O princeps invicte, facta inclita sunt personanda ? quibus me,
licet imparem dicendi nisu, et aevo gravior, praeparabo ;" but whether this project was ever
carried into effect we have no means of discovering, since nothing is known with regard to
the personal history of the writer.