Notes to Preface and Book One

1–5: The opening of the Preface is rich in echoes of philosophy and particularly of Stoic cosmology; see Green 2004.211–13. With Juvencus’ description of the world’s end, cf. 2 Pet. 3:7–12. The inclusion of “golden Rome” (aurea Roma) provocatively rejects the idea that Rome was eternal; for references to Roma aeterna in Late Antiquity, see Moore 1894.36–42. The notion of aurea Roma is a well-known Augustan topos that continues into the late period; see, e.g., Ausonius, Ord. 1: prima urbes inter, divum domus, aurea Roma (first among cities, home of the gods, golden Rome).