Primary Source XLI: An Excerpt from Aurelius Victor

The History of Cyprus Podcast

The Calocaerus Revolt (334 CE) was an uprising led by a certain Calocaerus, the Magister Pecoris Camelorum (Master of the Flock and Camels) in Cyprus, who declared himself emperor. The revolt was short lived and ruthlessly suppressed in the same year by Flavius Dalmatius, half brother to Emperor Constantine I. We know of the events from historians such as St. Jerome (Jerome of Stridon), St. Theophanes the Confessor and (our earliest source) from Sextus Aurelius Victor in his work De Caesaribus. Written in the 4th century, it provides a concise summary of the lives and reigns of Roman emperors from Augustus to Constantius II, and it draws heavily from the Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte, a lost source that served as a common framework for several late Roman historical accounts. This short (but important) source springboards us to next month's episode: the little known and enigmatic Calocaerus Revolt with Maria Castello!