Valerius Antias - Life and Work

Life and Work

Not much is known about the life of Valerius Antias. He was probably a younger contemporary of Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius and lived in the times of Sulla although some scholars believe that he was a contemporary of Julius Caesar and wrote his work after 50 BC, because he seems to have been unknown to Cicero (who especially does not mention him in his enumeration of famous historians (de legibus 1.2.3-7)). He was the most important of the so-called “younger annalists”.

The nearly completely lost work of Antias – cited as annales or as historiae – began its account of the Roman history with the foundation of Rome and extended at least to the year 91 BC. The second book told about the legendary Roman king Numa Pompilius, the twenty-second book about the capitulation of Gaius Hostilius Mancinus in 136 BC (this event Livy only reports in book 55 of his history). Therefore the earlier times were reported much shorter than the contemporary history of the author.

The work of Antias was not very reliable. Livy criticizes his exaggerated numbers of killed and captured enemies in the Roman wars. Sometimes he seems to have invented even battles. But sometimes he also delivered correct values, which fact can be concluded from a comparison with some values given by Polybius.

Antias’ account of each year included the allocation of troops and provinces, important omen, battles, foundation of new colonies etc. At the end of the description of each year he reported about plays, temple inaugurations, and other news, in particular about events in the city of Rome. Under the influence of Hellenistic historiography Antias related his stories very long-winded and filled with sensationalism to entertain his readers. He embroidered the mostly short accounts of older historians with dramatic details and also recounted legends and miracles. He falsified the report about the trials of the Scipio brothers (compare Livy 38.50-60) and seems to have invented high offices and deeds of members of his house, the gens Valeria, who lived in the early Roman republic because there were no reliable sources about these early times, which could have disproved his assertions. Antias gave a rationalistic account about the discovery of the coffins with the books of king Numa, because he had the coffins uncovered by rain and not by excavation like in the older tradition.

The style of Antias was simple and not archaic and Marcus Cornelius Fronto (epistel ad Verus 1, 1, p. 134, 2 ed. Van den Hout) judged his language to be not attractive (invenuste). Therefore he was rarely cited literally by later grammarians.