Pompeius Trogus

Life

Pompeius Trogus was a Roman historian who was likely born around 60 BCE. Very little information is known about his life. His grandfather fought against Q. Sertorius under the command of Pompey the Great, which led to him becoming a Roman citizen as a client of Pompey’s. His father then served under Julius Caesar in the war against Pompey.

Because his grandfather was a client of Pompey’s, some editions add the praenomen Gnaeus to Trogus’ name, assuming that the same praenomen, originally adopted from Pompey’s name when the grandfather became a citizen, would have been passed down for three generations. The manuscripts, however, simply name him Pompeius Trogus.

Works

While no works of Trogus directly survives, an abridgment of his Historiae Philippicae exists. The original work was a universal history in forty-four books from ancient Assyria to Augustan Rome, though the vast majority of it narrated the events surrounding Philip of Macedon and the founding the Macedonian Empire.

The abridgment was made in the second century by the historian Justin.

Trogus also reportedly wrote a natural history (sometimes called De Animalibus), from which Pliny the Elder quotes, but this has also been lost.

Trogus Online

Latin: PHI Latin Texts

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