Julius Obsequens

Julius Obsequens was a Roman writer, who probably lived in the late 4th century AD.

About his life nothing is known, he is survived only as the author of the Liber de prodigiis (or Liber prodigiorum ). This " book of signs " treated years in the period from 190 BC to 11 BC; from the title, it appears that the work was originally started with the secular celebration in the year 249 BC. It is a highly abridged and simplified excerpt from the Ab urbe condita libri of Titus Livy, in which each sign and corresponding historical events are compared. Due to the pagan apologetic tendency, the work was dated to the second half of the 4th century.

In late antiquity and the Middle Ages there are no traces of a aftereffect of the work. The Editio princeps was published in 1508 in Venice by Aldus Manutius by a now lost manuscript. During the Renaissance, the work was very popular, which led to a large number of issues. The most important is that of the Basel humanist Conrad Lycosthenes from 1552. Prophecy ( " Centuries" ) of Nostradamus were influenced by Julius Obsequens.