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{{LanguageBar|Lucius Coelius Antipater}} L. Coelius Antipater was a historian and jurist in the time of [[Marcus Aemilius Scaurus cos. 115|M. Scaurus]]. ==Life== Very little direct biographical information about L. Coelius survives. Cicero seems to regard him as a contemporary of [[Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur|Q. Scaevola the ''augur'']], who was born around the year {{-160}}; Pomponius, less helpfully, lists him among a range of men who were probably born between the years {{-175}} and {{-140}}.<ref>Cicero, '''''Brutus''''', 26.102; Justinian, '''''digesta''''', 1.2.2.40 (mentioning [[Publius Rutilius Rufus|P. Rutilius]], [[Quintus Aelius Tubero|Q. Aelius]], [[Sextus Pompeius|Sex. Pompeius]], and (if we make two small emendations to the text) [[Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus|P. Crassus Mucianus]]).</ref> He was a teacher and friend of the orator [[Lucius Licinius Crassus|L. Crassus]], who was born {{-140}}, and was old enough to remember [[Gaius Sempronius Gracchus|C. Gracchus]], who died {{-121}}.<ref>Crassus: Cicero, '''''Brutus''''', 26.102 (as a teacher); '''''de oratore''''', 2.12.54 (as a friend). Gracchus: Cicero, '''''de divinatione''''', 1.26.56, Valerius Maximus, 1.7.6.</ref> Cicero's '''''de oratore''''', set {{-91}}, seems to speak of him as no longer living, though this is not decisive.<ref>Cicero, '''''de oratore''''', 2.12.54-13.54; 3.38.153.</ref> It is difficult to be sure of Antipater's social status. His ''cognomen'' is Greek and may suggest a slave ancestry, but probably quite a remote one, for references by Cicero seem to treat him as thoroughly respectable.<ref>E.g., Cicero, '''''Brutus''''', 26.102; '''''de oratore''''', 2.12.54.</ref> Moreover, the composition of histories and legal texts in Latin prose seems at this time to have been a largely aristocratic acitivity.<ref>Among historians we think of [[Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi cos. 133|L. Piso Frugi]], [[Sempronius Asellio|Sempronius Asellio]], [[Lucius Cornelius Sisenna|L. Sisenna]], and of course [[M. Porcius Cato cos. 195|M. Cato]]; among legal writers, [[Marcus Iunius Brutus pr. 140?|M. Brutus]], [[Publius Mucius Scaevola cos. 133|P. Scaevola]], and [[Manius Manilius|M'. Manilius]].</ref> He may possibly have been the father of the C. Antipater who was killed while serving in the army of [[Gaius Norbanus cos. 83|C. Norbanus]] {{-82}}.<ref>Appian, '''''bellum civile''''', 1.91. This identification is suggested by, for example, Brennan, T.C., '''The Praetorship In The Roman Republic''' (Oxford University Press, 2000), vol.2 p.380.</ref> ==Legal thought== It is unclear from Pomponius whether Antipater wrote books on law or whether his contributions to legal science were simply by way of ''responsa''; in any case they do not seem to have been very significant and are not quoted by later legal writers.<ref>Justinian, '''''digesta''''', 1.2.2.40.</ref> It is true that Cicero calls him "very learned in law", but in the long run he was remembered principally as a historian.<ref>"''iuris valde peritus''": Cicero, '''''Brutus''''', 26.102.</ref> ==Historical works== Antipater was a significant figure in the development of Roman historical writing and is occasionally cited by later historians. He probably wrote at least two historical works, one of which was known as "Histories".<ref>Gellius and Macrobius refer to ''historiae'' (Gellius, 10.24.6; Macrobius, 1.4.25) comprising at least two books, the second of which featured events from the Hannibalic war. We know that Coelius also wrote about events as early as the first generation of the republic (see the next footnote), and it seems unlikely that the ''historiae'' covered the three hundred odd years from then to the time of Hannibal within its first two books, so there must have been at least one other work in which the period up to the Punic wars was dealt with. One of his works had at least three books: Gellius, 10.1.3.</ref> His works covered events including the year {{-491}}, the [[Hannibalic war]], and the tribunate of [[Gaius Sempronius Gracchus|C. Gracchus]]; in short, he seems to have covered the entire sweep of Roman history from at least the beginning of the republic up to his own lifetime.<ref>The Hannibalic war was evidently dealt with in the second book of the "Histories": Gellius, 10.24.6; Macrobius, 1.4.25. The story of the [[Titus Latinius|T. Latinius]] took place {{-491}} but Cicero, '''''de divinatione''''', 1.26.55, does not say where in Coelius' work he finds the story; nor does either he ('''''de divinatione''''', 1.26.56) or Valerius Maximus (1.7.6, probably taken from that passage of Cicero) say where the story of Gracchus' dream was to be found.</ref> One of Antipater's sources for his account of the war with Hannibal was the history written in Greek by [[Silenus of Calatia]]; another was Cato's.<ref>Silenus: Cicero, '''''de divinatione''''', 1.24.49. Cato: Gellius, 10.24.7; Macrobius, 1.4.25-26.</ref> He himself was used as a major source for that period by later writers.<ref>Among others, Livy, 21.38, 26.11, 27.27, 28.46, 29.25, 29.27, 29.35; Cicero, '''''de divinatione''''', 1.24.48, 1.35.78; Gellius, 10.24.7; Macrobius, 1.4.25-26. He was probably, along with Polybius, Livy's principal source for the period.</ref> Coelius is called a "reliable authority" by Valerius Maximus, though Valerius was perhaps not the most critical judge of sources;<ref>"''... certus Romanae historiae auctor''": Valerius Maximus, 1.7.6.</ref> at any rate he appears to have been detailed and, like Livy, to have taken care when recording disputed events to mention the various different versions and to cite his source for each.<ref>E.g., Livy, 27.27, which also shows that Coelius did (or claimed to have done) original research of his own.</ref> On the other hand Livy has occasion to accuse him of hyperbole.<ref>Livy, 29.25.</ref> A certain Brutus, perhaps [[Marcus Iunius Brutus pr. 44|the Caesaricide]], later made an epitome of Antipater's work that was consulted (or at least wanted) by Cicero.<ref>Cicero, '''''ad Atticum''''', 13.8.</ref> ==Significance== Though he wrote about a long stretch of history, it seems that Coelius was used by later historians principally as a source for the events of the [[Hannibalic war|war against Hannibal]], and through Livy we owe much of our own knowledge of those events to him. But he may in the long run have been equally significant for his prose style, for which he was famous in his day and which began to lift factual writing to the level of an art;<ref>His fame: Cicero, '''''Brutus''''', 26.201. Livy, 29.25, suggests a certain penchant for dramataic writing.</ref> indeed he may have deliberately set out to do this.<ref>Pomponius suggests that he was more interested in style than in content, at least as far as legal writing was concerned: Justinian, '''''digesta''''', 1.2.2.40. The fact that Coelius was the teacher of that great rhetorical stylist [[Lucius Licinius Crassus|L. Crassus]] is also suggestive on this point.</ref> By his influence on [[Lucius Licinius Crassus|L. Crassus]] he may indeed have had a similar effect, indirectly, on Roman oratory. ==References== <references/> {{DEFAULTSORT: Coelius}} [[Category: Historians]] [[Category: Jurists]]

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