Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte

The Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte ('Enmann's History of the Emperors') is a modern term for a hypothetical 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

The work is not mentioned by any late Roman historian, but Enmann's analysis is today largely accepted and modified.[2] There are some scholars, especially Willem den Boer [de], who question its existence, but the majority accept it.^[3]

The Kaisergeschichte was a brief historical work. It had covered the time from emperor Augustus to 337 or 357.^[3] Besides the three historians mentioned above, it was used by Festus, Jerome, and the anonymous Epitome de Caesaribus.

See also

• Thirty Tyrants (Roman)
• Augustan History

References

• Alexander Enmann, Eine verlorene geschichte der römischen Kaiser und das buch de viris illustribus urbis romae. Philologus, no. Supplement-Band 4, Heft 3. (1884). p. 337-501.
• Willem den Boer, Some Minor Roman Historians. Leiden, 1972.
• Timothy David Barnes, The Sources of the Historia Augusta. Collection Latomus v. 155. Bruxelles: Latomus, 1978.
• Burgess, R. W. (1995). "On the Date of the Kaisergeschichte". Classical Philology. 90 (2): 111–128.
  S2CID 162872345
  . (with bibliography).