Epitŏmé
The name given to several abridgments by various Roman authors. The most important are
1.
An abridgment of Livy 's history commonly called
Periochae （
T. Livi
Periochae Omnium Librorum). (See
Livius.)
2.
A short history of the Roman emperors down to Theodosius I. and ascribed
to Aurelius
Victor (q.v.).
3.
The
Epitome Iliadis, a school-book of 1070 hexameters, which contains a
summary of the story of the
Iliad. This work, whose author was unknown, was
much read during the Middle Ages, being sometimes styled Homerus and sometimes (by a curious
error) Pindarus Thebanus. Bergk (
Philologus, xiv. p. 184) conjectures that the
writer was the Atticus mentioned by Persius (i. 50). The text will be found in Wernsdorf's
Poetae Lat. Minores, iv. pp. 617-752; and has been edited by Weytingh
(Leyden and Amsterdam, 1809) and Plessis
(Paris, 1885). The poem
is now ascribed to Silius
Italicus (q.v.). See
Verres,
De Silii Punicorum et Italici Iliadis Lat. Quaestiones Grammaticae et
Metricae (Münster, 1888).
4.
The
Epitome Iuliani, a collection of imperial
constitutiones, made between A.D. 535 and 555.
