Dan Attrell

The Book of Prodigies - Julius Obsequens

Added 2023-02-07 16:01:26 +0000 UTC

Julius Obsequens was a Late Antique tabulator of prodigies, omens, and portents officially recognized by the Roman state and its priests. Although he wrote sometime in the late 4th or early 5th centuries AD, his records covered the period from 249 BC to 12 BC, and the surviving portions of his work stretch from 190 BC to 11 BC. His own account was mainly derived from the Roman historian Livy’s partially extant writings, who himself began every year in his famous history Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City) with a record of who reigned as consuls, accompanied by a brief note on the omens recognized by the Roman state.

The following account was translated from the original Latin by Alex Nice, and I have here reproduced the record of all the omens along with the years they were reported to have occurred. For the sake of brevity, I have omitted the names of the reigning consuls. So without further ado, please enjoy Julius Obsequens’ Liber Prodigiorum, one of our finest surviving accounts on ancient Roman omenology. The records begin in the year 190 B.C., just a decade following the end of the Second Punic War

Latin text: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/obsequens.html

Translation by Alex Nice: http://attalus.org/translate/obsequens.html