[an-l-ist] 
| a chronicler of events, esp. yearly ones; historian. |
| an·nal·ist (ān'ə-lĭst) n. One who writes annals; a chronicler. |
annalist
in general, an ancient Roman historian. The term is used in several ways by ancient and modern scholars. The earliest sources for historians were the annual "pontiff's tables" (tabulae pontificum), or annales, which after about 300 BC listed the names of magistrates and public events of religious significance. The first work called Annales was the epic poem of Quintus Ennius (239-169 BC); in contrast to subsequent annalistic works, Ennius's was composed in dactylic hexameter verse rather than prose, and it did not follow a year-by-year narrative. Later authors refer to the histories of Quintus Fabius Pictor and Cato as annales, although Cato's Origines, at least, was not a year-by-year narrative. In the 2nd century and early 1st century BC, a number of historians, later used as sources by Livy, did follow a year-by-year presentation: Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Gnaeus Gellius, Valerius Antias, Gaius Licinius Macer, Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius, and Quintus Aelius Tubero
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