Orosius and the Rhetoric of History

Peter Van Nuffelen is research professor at Ghent University, Belgium. His work focuses on Greco-Roman religion and the history and historiography of late Antiquity. Recent publications include the monograph Rethinking the Gods. Philosophical Readings of Religion in the Post-Hellenistic Period (Cambridge, 2011), two edited volumes with S. Mitchell, Monotheism in Late Antiquity Between Christians and Pagans (Leuven, 2010) and One God. Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire (1-4th cent. A.D) (Cambridge, 2010), and the co-edited volume Episcopal Succession in Late Antiquity (Berlin, 2011).

Any person interested in Orosius and the Historiae, or rhetoric in the ancient world, will surely find this book immensely useful and stimulating. It is lucid and easily accessible, and excellent signposting is sustained throughout. ... This is an important book which merits a large and serious readership. The Historiae is engaged with as a deserved subject of scrutiny, and the author's approach avoid exaggeration or pretention.

• Introduction ; 1. Unexpected Pearls: Prefaces and the Rhetoric of Deference ; 2. A Tale of Two Cities: Book 2 and the Fall of Rome ; 3. The Past as Literature: exempla and the Culture of Rhetoric ; 4. (Re)sources of Narrative ; 5. A Sense of the Past: The Truth of Rhetoric ; 6. A Past for the Present: On Metaphors and Panegyric ; 7. Beyond Rome: Universal History and the Barbarian ; 8. What Difference Does Christianity Make?