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(ἐπιτομή; epitomḗ, Lat. epitoma and epitome) [German version] A. Definition Epitomḗ (from ἐπιτέμνειν; epitómnein, ‘abbreviate’, ‘cut to size’, Aristot. Soph. el. 174b 29; Theophr. Hist. pl. 6,6,6): as an ideal type, it is a form of reduced written text [10] somewhere between an excerpt and a paraphrase, generally of prose works (exception i.a. the lost Virgil epitomes [2]), and themselves written in prose (exception: Ausonius' Caesares). Extreme brevity is the declared aim of an epitome: decorative features of the original, such as speeches, or digressions, …

[German version] A chronicle-like ( Chronicles) collection of texts in 4 bks. written in the mid 7th cent. in France, Ab orbe condito (until 642), to which people wrongly attributed a Fredegar as the author in the 16th cent. The question of its authorship, like that of the number of people involved in the compilation (one editor: [1]), is unresolved. The Frankish orientation remains decisive. The entire compilation had little effect (38 MSS), and the only strong influence was the history of the Trojan origin of the…

[German version] 1. Indication of the contents of a drama or poem (Greek ὑπόθεσις; hypóthesis), also in the sense of ‘great draft’ (Verg. Aen. 7,791; cf. Quint. Inst. 5,10,9 f.). 2. Within the classification of narrative texts according to truth content, the argumentum stands between fabula and historia: as a tale that is fabricated but correlates to the reality of life (Cic. Inv. 1,27; Rhet. Her. 1,12 f.). In late antiquity, this sharp division becomes blurred [1]. 3. From the tradition of Greek philosophy and rhetoric: ‘reason’, ‘proofs’, together with signa and exempla understood …