Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte

The Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte is a modern term for a hypothesized Latin historical work, written in the 4th century but now lost.

The German scholar Alexander Enmann made in 1884 a comparison of several late Roman historical works and found many similarities, which could not be explained by a direct literary relationship between the extant works ("Eine verlorene Geschichte der roemischen Kaiser und das Buch De viris illustribus urbis Romae"). Enmann postulated a theory of a lost historical work, which was the common source for authors including Aurelius Victor, Eutropius and the Scriptores Historiae Augustae. The work is not mentioned by any late Roman historian, but Enmann's analysis is today largly accepted and modified.

The "Kaisergeschichte" ("History of the Emperors") was a brief historical work. It had covered the time from emperor Augustus to 337 or 357. It was used by Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus, the Historia Augusta, Jerome, the anonymous "Epitome de Caesaribus", and other late Roman histories (cf. Burgess).

References

* R. W. Burgess, "On the Date of the Kaisergeschichte", in: Classical Philology 90 (1995), 111–128 (with bibliography); [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-837X(199504)90%3A2%3C111%3AOTDOTK%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J JSTOR] .