SOURCE: "Eutropius: His Life and Career," Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views, Vol. 32, n.s., No. 7, 1988, pp. 51-60.

In the essay that follows, Bird attempts to reconstruct the details of Eutropius's life, particularly his career as a Roman administrator.

In spite of the confident assertions of many modern scholars,¹ what we know for certain about the life and career of Eutropius, the author of the once popular Breviarium ab urbe condita, is extremely limited. What follows, therefore, is a considered, but tentative, reconstruction.

Eutropius, like his contemporary and fellow-abbreviator, Sextus Aurelius Victor, was born soon after A.D. 320,² for he is called a contemporary of the Emperors Valens (b. 328?) and Julian (b. 331)³ and must have been at least in his mid- to late thirties when he was magister epistularum of Constantius prior to 361,⁴ and somewhat older in 369 when he served in the senior position of magister memoriae under...