F 13), as does J. Hornblower (1981, 248). If Hieronymus did discuss the origins of
Rome, it is likely that he gave a Trojan origin: J. Hornblower 1981, 250. A Trojan ori-
gin is of course not incompatible with a historical date of foundation, as Timaeus’s case
shows, but it seems more likely that Hieronymus was giving the more or less standard
pre-Timaean version of a foundation in the time of the nostoi.
135.Ant. Rom.1.74.1. It is still sometimes claimed, following Jacoby, that Timaeus
had two epochs for the foundation of Rome: a “heroic” one in his Historiesand a “his-
torical” one in his Pyrrhica(“Affairs of Pyrrhus,” a supplement, it appears, to the His-
tories,covering the wars of Pyrrhus in Italy and Sicily): see Jacoby, FGrH566, Komm.,
564 – 65. There is in fact no testimony to a Timaean heroic foundation era, and Jacoby
bases his argument solely on the conviction that the Rome/Carthage synchronism
only makes sense on the brink of the First Punic War and must therefore have been
included in the Pyrrhica,so that the earlier Historieswill have given the conventional
heroic epoch for Rome ’s foundation. The Histories,however, very likely already con-
tained substantial treatments of Rome (Meister 1989 – 90, 58 – 59), and there are many
other contexts than 264 b.c.e.to explain the significance of the synchronism
(Momigliano 1977a, 54 – 55; Asheri 1991 – 92, 72 – 73). Further, if Timaeus had given a
heroic date in his Historiesand then the “814” date in a later book, surely Polybius
would have commented, as well as Dionysius of Halicarnassus: Dionysius knew
Timaeus well, went into this question in a lot of detail, and was very puzzled by the
“814” date (Momigliano 1977a, 54).
- Asheri 1991 – 92, 70 n. 31, firmly establishes that Timaeus fixed the fall of Troy
in “1334 b.c.e.,” the same year as that of Duris of Samos. On the significance of the
date, see pp. 142 – 43 below. - Asheri 1991 – 92, 66. Philistus of Syracuse, for example, dated Carthage ’s
foundation to “1215 b.c.e.” (FGrH556 F 47). Once the mid-eighth-century date for
Rome ’s foundation had become canonical, it was still possible to achieve the synchro-
nism by moving Carthage ’s date: Apion (first century c.e.) put the foundation of
Carthage in “752 b.c.e.” — the same year as the Exodus from Egypt (Joseph. Ap.2.17
= FGrH616 F 4a). - My thanks to Josephine Quinn for the suggestion that Timaeus could have
obtained his information about a Carthaginian foundation date from Carthaginians,
and for discussion of this whole question. Asheri (1991 – 92, 62 – 67) argues for
Timaeus finding the Carthaginian date in translations of Tyrian annals, but the very
existence of these annals is disputed, let alone their accessibility to a Greek around 300
b.c.e.: for a skeptical view, see Garbini 1980, and for a view closer to Asheri’s, Aubet
2001, 27 – 29, 215 – 19. - For Dionysius’s genuine expertise in chronology, see Schultze 1995 and Cor-
nell 1995, 401. - As reported by Cornell 1975, 26 – 27; Gabba 1991, 197 – 98, for a development;
notes to pages 92 – 93. 251