Paeanius's Greek Translation of Eutropius's Breviarium: Edition and Linguistic Study

• Applicant: Dr. Jonathan Groß
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 555897292

Paeanius’s Metaphrasis (“Translation”) of Eutropius’s Roman History (Breviarium ab urbe condita, a short history of the Roman Empire from the foundation of the city in 753/2 BCE to the death of Emperor Jovian in 364 CE) provides a rare example of a work of Latin literature translated into Greek. Written circa 379 CE, only ten years after the Latin original, it is – unlike the two other translations whose fragments are preserved in the works of John of Antioch (6th/7th cent.) and Theophanes the Confessor (9th cent.) – transmitted almost in its entirety by several manuscripts. As a witness to 4th century Greek-Latin bilingualism, the Metaphrasis has great potential for philological, linguistic, stylistic and translatological research. However due to the lack of a reliable edition and philological commentary, this potential has not been fully realized. The project submitted here addresses this by producing a critical edition with introduction, critical apparatus, German translation, notes and indices, as well as a comprehensive study on Paeanius’s language, style, translation methods and authorship. These studies will for the first time make use of the full manuscript tradition of the Metaphrasis as well as analyse it within its cultural, lingustic and literary environment.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants