Julius Obsequens was a Roman writer active in the 4th or early 5th centuries AD, during late antiquity. His sole known work is the Prodigiorum liber (Book of Prodigies), a tabulation of the wonders and portents (prodigia) that had occurred in the Roman Republic and early Principate in the years 24912 BC. The material for the Prodigiorum liber was largely excerpted from the 1st century AD Ab Urbe Condita Libri of the Augustan historian Livy, which chronicled the history of the Roman state from its origin to the beginning of the imperial period, though Julius used it selectively and sometimes added interpretations of the omens and incidents he included. Since Julius wrote some four centuries after the latest of the events he describes, his is not an eye-witness account, and for most of his subject matter his source Livy was himself neither an eye-witness nor even a contemporary. Obsequens was interested in signs and omens, not accurate weather reporting.

References

  • Julio Obsecuente, Libro de los Prodigios (restituido a su integridad, en beneficio de la Historia, por Conrado Licóstenes), ed. Ana Moure Casas (Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas, 1990)
  • Giulio Ossequente, Il Libro dei prodigi, ed. Solas Boncompagni (Rome: Edizioni Mediterranee, 1992)
  • Beyer, Jürgen, 'Obsequens, Julius', in Enzyklopädie des Märchens. Handwörterbuch zur historischen und vergleichenden Erzählforschung, vol. 10 (Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2000–02), coll. 176-8
  • David Engels, Das römische Vorzeichenwesen (753-27 v.Chr.). Quellen, Terminologie, Kommentar, historische Entwicklung (Stuttgart: Franz-Steiner, 2007), p. 221–235.
  • Latin text of Prodigiorum Liber at The Latin Library
  • English translation of Book of Prodigies, by Alex Nice at attalus.org