Fenestella

Who was Fenestella?

Fenestella, Roman historian and encyclopaedic writer, flourished in the reign of Tiberius. If the notice in Jerome is correct, he lived from 52 BC to AD 19.

Taking Varro for his model, Fenestella was one of the chief representatives of the new style of historical writing which, in the place of the brilliant descriptive pictures of Livy, discussed curious and out-of-the-way incidents and customs of political and social life, including literary history. He was the author of an Annales, probably from the earliest times down to his own days.

The fragments indicate the great variety of subjects discussed: the origin of the appeal to the people; the use of elephants in the circus games; the wearing of gold rings; the introduction of the olive tree; the material for making the toga; the cultivation of the soil; certain details as to the lives of Cicero and Terence. The work was very much used by Pliny the Elder, Asconius Pedianus, Nonius, and the philologists.

A work published under the name of L. Fenestella is really by A. D. Fiocchi, canon and papal secretary, and was subsequently published as by him, edited by Aegidius Witsius.