Curtius

Curtius, QUINTUS (Quintus Curtius Rufus), author of the work De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, in ten books, of which the first two have been lost, and the text of the remainder has come down to us in an imperfect condition. Some critics have placed him in the reign of Augustus against the evidence of his style, which is moulded on that of Seneca, and would naturally suggest a writer contemporary with Claudius and Nero; others, as Niebuhr, under Severus; and others again much later. Curtius was poorly equipped as a historian, and his book has but little value as history; but its style, if mannered and declamatory, is elegant and pleasing. The editio princeps was published at Venice about 1471. Modern editions are those of Mützeli (1841), Zumpt (1849), and Vogel (1875-80).