Quintus Curtius Rufus

Quintus Curtius Rufus was a 1st century AD Roman author, whose only known work is his Historiae Alexandri Magni (History of Alexander). This work is of utter importance because it is one of the only five extant sources we have on the life of Alexander the Great. Other than his name on the manuscript, nothing else is known about him today.

Of the five extant works (the other authors being Appian, Arrian, Diodorus and Plutarch), it is unique in that it gives us a Roman view point as not a Greek. This work has survived in 123 bonded manuscripts all stemming from an original in the ninth century. Originally containing ten books, the first two (and a possible introduction) are now lost to us today.