Eutropius (historian)

His book Breviarium Historiae Romanae summarizes events from the founding of Rome in the 8th century BC down to the author's lifetime.

Appreciated by later generations for its clear presentation and writing style,[1] the Breviarium can be used as a supplement to more comprehensive Roman historical texts that have survived in fragmentary condition.

[1][5] He survived at least as late as the reign of the emperor Valens (364–378), to whom he dedicated his Summary of Roman History.

Eutropius's Summary of Roman History (Latin: Breviarium Historiae Romanae) or Summary from the Founding of Rome (Breviarium ab Urbe Condita) is a ten-chapter compendium of Roman history from its foundation to the short reign of Jovian.

For the Empire, he appears to have used Suetonius and the now lost Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte, Enmann's History of the Emperors.

[5] The independent value of his Summary is small, but it sometimes fills a gap left by the more authoritative records.

It is particularly useful to historians for its account of the First Punic War, as no copy of Livy's original books for that period have survived.

[1] In particular, it received expanded editions by Paul the Deacon and Landolf Sagax,[7] which repeated the original text and then continued it into the reigns of Justinian the Great and Leo the Armenian respectively.