SOURCE: "Eutropius on Numa Pompilius and the Senate," The Classical Journal, Vol. 81, No. 3, February-March, 1986, pp. 243-48.

In this essay, Bird contends that the Breviarium's treatment of Roman rulers reveals that "what was primarily important for Eutropius was how they interacted with the senate."

Eutropius was the Emperor Valens' magister memoriae in A.D. 369/370 and had accompanied the Emperor Julian on the ill-fated expedition against the Persians in 363. His Breviarium of Roman history from Rome's foundation to the death of Jovian in 364, written in clear, unaffected Latin, quickly become popular. It was soon translated into Greek and in its original Latin form became a school textbook for the middle ages and beyond. One of my own copies was published in Glasgow in 1783 and presented as a school prize to Moses Brown, a student in the fourth grade of Glasgow Grammar School in 1796.

In his preface Eutropius informs the...