Rómverja saga
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Rómverja saga (The Saga of the Romans) in an Old Norse-Icelandic translation of three Latin historical texts: Sallust's Bellum Jugurthinum and Coniuratio Catilinae and Lucan's Pharsalia.[1] It gives an account of Roman history from the Jugurthine War (112 BCE) to the death of Augustus (14 CE).[2] This combination of sources is unique in medieval literature.[1] Along with Breta sögur, Veraldar saga and Trójumanna saga, it represent the earliest phase of translation of secular works into Old Norse-Icelandic.[3]
Rómverja saga exists in two versions: an older and longer, but poorly preserved version in AM 595a-b 4to; and a younger, abridged version in AM 226 fol, copied in AM 225 fol.[4]
There are close parallels between sections of Veraldar saga and Rómverja saga. Hofmann proposed that Veraldar saga takes its Roman history from Rómverja saga.[5] Þorbjörg Helgadóttir instead considers that the two sagas both used the same Latin sources: Sallust and Lucan.[6]
