- Source: 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 Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and the author of the Historia Augusta.
The work is not mentioned by any late Roman historian, but Enmann's analysis is today largely accepted and modified. There are some scholars, especially Willem den Boer, who question its existence, but the majority accept it.
The Kaisergeschichte was a brief historical work. It had covered the time from emperor Augustus to 337 or 357. 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.
Bleckmann, Bruno; Nickbakht, Mehran A.; Scardino, Carlo (2022). Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte. Rufius Festus, Breviarium. Kleine und fragmentarische Historiker der Spätantike. Vol. B1/B4. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh. pp. 3–216. ISBN 978-3-506-70832-8.
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. doi:10.1086/367453. JSTOR 270485. S2CID 162872345. (with bibliography).