Abrégé de l'Histoire Romaine de L.A. Florus. Traduction nouvelle avec des notes par M. l'Abbé Paul, professeur d'éloquence au Collége d'Arles.

Paris, Chez les Frères Barbou, 1794 - 1795 (L'An III de la République Française) 12mo. (IV),384 p. Modern half calf. 18.5 cm (Ref: This edition not in Schweiger and Brunet; however cf Schweiger 2,366; cf Brunet 2/2,1312; cf Ebert 7698) (Details: Latin text with facing French translation. Back with five raised bands; marbled boards, marbled endpapers. Only the upper margin has been cut) (Condition: Small bookplate on the front pastedown. Small waterstain in the right lower corner and the left inner corner of the first 30 p. Paper yellowing) (Note: This is the chief work of the Roman historian Lucius Annaeus Florus, who lived at the beginning 2nd century AD. It is an abridgement (epitome) of Roman history with special reference to the wars waged up to the age of Augustus. Florus 'shows a certain literary gift, marred, however, by a strong tendency to rhetoric. His brevity often entails obscurity, though he sometimes produces a felicitous epigram. (...) As an historian he is often inaccurate in both chronology and geography, but the work as a whole achieves a limited success as a rapid sketch of Roman military history. It was a favourite school-book in the 17th century'. (OCD, 2nd ed. p. 442) The Abbé Armand-Laurent Paul, 1740-1809, was a French jesuit and grammarian. He wrote a number of scholarly works; the first Barbou edition of his Florus, together with his notes and translation, dates from 1774 (Brunet 2,2 p. 1312). The edition of 1774 is common, the edition of 1794 is rather rare. The translations by Paul are said to be trustworthy, but dry) (Provenance: Bookplate of the Belgian ancient historian and archaeologist Marie Therèse Charlier on the front pastedown) (Collation: pi2, A-Q12) (Photographs on request)