Gnaeus Gellius

Gnaeus Gellius was a Roman historian of the 2nd century BC, which is expected to " older annalists ".

He wrote probably towards the end of the 2nd century BC annales ( yearbooks ), which ranged from the early Roman period until at least the year 146 BC. The unusually large size of the work ( quoted a 97th book ) relies hardly on the first use of the Annales maximi, but on the generous inclusion of mythologems and cultural-historical speculation strict annalistischer By shaping ( even in the royal period ) and imaginative additions to the sparse tradition by talking, motivations and plot elements that were invented by the rules of plausibility (Greek εικός, EIKOS ). Gellius assumes the characteristics of the " younger Annals " of the 1st century BC in advance.

His language is to some extravagances (preference for forms in- abus genitive lapiderum ) relatively inconspicuous.

Of the later historians Gaius Licinius Macer used it and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( the rough chronological errors in Gellius blame ), but not Titus Livius. Subsequent citations (eg, Aulus Gellius, and Servius ) are perhaps mediated by Marcus Terentius Varro.