“Julius Honorius” is identified as the author of the Cosmographia in a note that one of his students attached to the end of the work; there he is called magister peritus atque sine aliqua dubitatione doctissimus (§50-1). It has thus been proposed that this author should be identified with the Julius Orator whose libellus Cassiodorus recommends to monks as useful for understanding certain notions of cosmography (Inst. 1.25.1). This suggestion is confirmed by the words Cassiodorus uses to describe Julius Orator’s short work: in fact, the correspondence with the Julius Honorius’ treatise is perfect even in terms of its arrangement of material.

Apart from this fact, however, it is extremely difficult to find other evidence about Honorius.  Cassiodorus’ Institutiones offer a firm terminus ante quem, as do the frequent citations of the Cosmographia that Jordanes inserts into his Gaetica, a text composed between 551 and 555 AD. Honorius’ reference to Constantine’s foundation of the Algerian city Constantine (mod. Qacentina) in 313 AD furnishes a terminus post quem (§44).  [A. Borgna; tr. C. L. Caterine].