The Chronicle by Marcellinus was intended as a sequel to its predecessor Jerome but demonstrates marked differences concerning the underlying historiographic and narrative ideas. The text is distinctly orthodox and emphasizes both the history of salvation and pronounced panegyrics. In his praefatio, Marcellinus voices a clearly individual concept. The summa brevitas of the chronicle is substituted by long passages and the ‘chronological present tense’ by the tenses of historical narrative. Marcellinus carefully chooses ideologically striking (hitherto unnoticed) quotations both from classical authors and the Old Testament. These intertextual signals underline the author´s interpretation of the historical facts.