Gaius Asinius Quadratus

Gaius Asinius Quadratus (fl. AD 248) was a Greek historian of Rome and Parthia in the 3rd century. He was a senator who wrote a fifteen-book history of Rome, Chilieteris ("The Millennium"), which according to the Suda covered the period from the founding of Rome until the rule of Alexander Severus. He also wrote a Parthika in nine books, presumably a narrative of the Parthian campaigns of the preceding century. Some scholars attribute to him a Germanika as well, although this is debated. All of his works were in Greek.

Thirty fragments of his work remain, which are published by Felix Jacoby in the Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. Most of these derive from the dictionary of Stephanus of Byzantium.

The "thousand years" of Quadratus' title has been explained in various ways. Jacoby argues that Quadratus unusually dated the founding of Rome to the first Olympiad in 776. Zecchini, on the other hand, claims that Quadratus used the traditional dating of the founding of Rome and intended the work to extend to 248, when Philip the Arab celebrated the 1st millennium; but that he died before its completion.

Asinius is the nomen of the gens Asinia of ancient Rome. He was the son of Gaius Julius Asinius Quadratus, who was brother of Gaius Asinius Rufus (born c. 160) and Gaius Asinius Quadratus Protimus (born c. 165), Proconsul of Achaea c. 211 or in 220. These brothers were sons of Gaius Asinius Nicomachus (born c. 135) and his wife and cousin Julia Quadratilla (born c. 145) (or perhaps Asinia Marcellina, descendant of the family of Gaius Asinius Pollio), and grandchildren of Gaius Asinius Rufus (c. 110 - after 136), a notable in Lydia in 134 and 135 who became a Roman Senator in 136, and wife Julia.

References

• Hartwin Brandt, Die Historia Augusta, Philostrat und Asinius Quadratus, in: ZPE 104 (1994), 78-80.
• E. Manni, Asinio Quadrato e l'arcaismo erodoteo nel III secolo d.C., in: L. Ferrero, ed, Studi di storiografia antica in memoria di Leonardo Ferrero (Torino, 1971), 191-201.
• Christian Settipani, Continuité Gentilice et Continuité Familiale Dans Les Familles Senatoriales Romaines, A L'Epoque Imperiale, Mythe et Realité. Linacre, UK: Prosopographica et Genealogica, 2000. ILL. NYPL ASY (Rome) 03-983.
• G. Zecchini, Asinio Quadrato storico di Filippo l'Arabo, in: Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.34.4 (1999), 2999-3021.