EDITOR'S PREFACE

Whether the slow, yet certain and effective progress of the critical art applied to the books of ancient writers can be proven by any example more striking or manifest than the work known as Florus’s Epitome of Roman History—a little book which, due to the rarity and length of Livy’s work, was not only held in high esteem by learned men during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance1) Petrarch, who himself professed that he was "animated to search for the remnants of T. Livius by the very flourishing brevity of Florus," can be seen in P. de Nolhac, Pétrarque et l’humanisme, p. 244 sq. Regarding Philippus Beroaldus, in the letter to P. M. Rubeus prefaced to the edition of Florus, he said: "L. Florus... collected so skillfully, distinguished so clearly, and narrated so briefly, that one can see and comprehend all things most easily as if placed in an illustrious monument. He is eloquent, vehement, distinct, varied, brief, and concise with the splendor and light of his words.", but was also assigned to young boys in schools for learning history2) From a large number of similar testimonies, I will propose only two less known, taken from manuscript books of the epitome of the 15th century: the first from the Turin codex 1057: "No one wrote more truthfully, no one more briefly, no one more ornately." (cf. below regarding the 'prologue'); the second from the codex of the public library of the French town of Arras, no. 902: Robertus Gaguinus wishes health to the readers of L. Anneus Florus: "The borders of the earth that enclosed no Roman citizens / This small tablet of Florus holds, bound tight; / And whatever Bella and leaders the production of Livy’s exceptional art / Contains, gathered according to custom. / By this true example, you who carry your step to the stars / Through fame and profit, hope for the future: / After swollen efforts, after the savage dangers of fate / A brief urn will cover you, snatched to the shades." — And indeed, in the seventeenth century, the name of Florus passed into a concept signifying the history of any wars whatsoever. Thus, E. Wassenbergius of Emmerich, [regarding] the series of wars then waged in Germany and..., is difficult to say how