La datazione di Giulio Valerio e della recensio uetusta del Romanzo di Alessandro: una messa a punto a proposito della recente edizione di J.P.Callu

This paper discusses the dating of the recensio uetusta of the Alexander Romance (transmitted by the code Parisinus Graecus 1711: siglum A) and of its translation in Julius Valerius’ Res Geastae. In his 2010 edition of the Res gestae, Jean Pierre Callu proposes to postpone the composition of the recensio uetusta to the beginning of the fifth century AD and that of Julius Valerius’ translation to 360-380 AD. This paper analyzes the arguments which Callu advanced in support of his new dating proposal and demonstrates their weakness. It defends the traditional dating of the Res Gestae to the Constantine era and that of the recensio uetusta to (probably) around the third century AD. The outcome confirms that the Itinerarium Alexandri, firmly dated to 340 AD, must be considered more recent than the Res gestae, which most probably were among its sources.