The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of
biographies
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
, written in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, of the
Roman emperors, their junior colleagues,
designated heirs and
usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the similar work of
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
, ''
The Twelve Caesars
''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The g ...
'', it presents itself as a compilation of works by six different authors (collectively known as the ''Scriptores Historiae Augustae''), written during the reigns of
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
and
Constantine I
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
and addressed to those emperors or other important personages in
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
. The collection, as extant, comprises thirty biographies, most of which contain the life of a single emperor, but some include a group of two or more, grouped together merely because these emperors were either similar or contemporaneous.
The true authorship of the work, its actual date, its reliability and its purpose have long been matters for controversy by historians and scholars ever since
Hermann Dessau, in 1889, rejected both the date and the authorship as stated within the manuscript. Major problems include the nature of the sources that it used, and how much of the content is pure fiction. For instance, the collection contains in all about 150 alleged documents, including 68 letters, 60 speeches and proposals to the people or the senate, and 20 senatorial decrees and acclamations.
By the second decade of the 21st century, the consensus supported the position that there was only a single author, who wrote either in the late 4th century or the early 5th century, who was interested in blending contemporary issues (political, religious and social) into the lives of the 3rd century emperors. There is further consensus that the author used the fictitious elements in the work to highlight references to other published works, such as to
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
and
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
, in a complex allegorical game.
Despite the conundrums, it is the only continuous account in Latin for much of its period and so is continually being re-evaluated. Modern historians are unwilling to abandon it as a unique source of possible information, despite its obvious untrustworthiness on many levels.
Title and scope
The name ''Historia Augusta'' originated with
Isaac Casaubon
Isaac Casaubon (; ; 18 February 1559 – 1 July 1614) was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and then later in England.
His son Méric Casaubon was also a classical scholar.
Life Early life
He was born in Geneva to two Fr ...
, who produced a critical edition in 1603, working from a complex
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
tradition with a number of variant versions. The title as recorded on the ''Codex Palatinus'' manuscript (written in the 9th century) is ''Vitae Diversorum Principum et Tyrannorum a Divo Hadriano usque ad Numerianum Diversis compositae'' ("The Lives of various Emperors and Tyrants from the Divine Hadrian to Numerian by Various Authors"), and it is assumed that the work may have been originally called ''de Vita Caesarum'' or ''Vitae Caesarum'' ("Lives of the Caesars").
How widely the work was circulated in late antiquity is unknown, but its earliest known use was in a ''Roman History'' composed by
Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus
Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus (died 526) was a 6th-century Roman aristocrat, an historian and a supporter of Nicene Christianity. He was a patron of secular learning, and became the consul for the year 485. He supported Pope Symmachus in the ...
in 485. Lengthy citations from it are found in authors of the 6th and 9th centuries, including
Sedulius Scottus
Sedulius Scotus or Scottus ( fl. 840–860) was an Irish teacher, Latin grammarian, and scriptural commentator who lived in the 9th century. During the reign of the Emperor Lothair (840–855), he was one of a colony of Irish teachers at Liège. ...
who quoted parts of the ''Marcus Aurelius'', the ''Maximini'' and the ''Aurelian'' within his ''Liber de Rectoribus Christianis'', and the chief manuscripts also date from the 9th or 10th centuries. The six ''Scriptores'' – "Aelius Spartianus", "Julius Capitolinus", "Vulcacius Gallicanus", "
Aelius Lampridius
The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, Caesar (title), designated heirs and Roman usurper, usurpers from 117 to 284. S ...
", "Trebellius Pollio", and "Flavius Vopiscus (of Syracuse)" – dedicate their biographies to
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
,
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
and various private persons, and so ostensibly were all writing around the late 3rd and early 4th century. The first four ''scriptores'' are attached to the lives from
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
to
Gordian III
Gordian III ( la, Marcus Antonius Gordianus; 20 January 225 – February 244) was Roman emperor from 238 to 244. At the age of 13, he became the youngest sole emperor up to that point (until Valentinian II in 375). Gordian was the son of Anton ...
, while the final two are attached to the lives from
Valerian to
Numerian
Numerian ( la, Marcus Aurelius Numerius Numerianus; died November 284) was Roman emperor from 283 to 284 with his older brother Carinus. They were sons of Carus, a general raised to the office of praetorian prefect under Emperor Probus in 282 ...
.
The biographies cover the emperors from Hadrian to
Carinus
Marcus Aurelius Carinus (died 285) was Roman emperor from 283 to 285. The elder son of emperor Carus, he was first appointed ''Caesar'' and in the beginning of 283 co-emperor of the western portion of the empire by his father. Official accoun ...
and Numerian. A section covering the reigns of
Philip the Arab
Philip the Arab ( la, Marcus Julius Philippus "Arabs"; 204 – September 249) was Roman emperor from 244 to 249. He was born in Aurantis, Arabia, in a city situated in modern-day Syria. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip ...
,
Decius
Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius ( 201 ADJune 251 AD), sometimes translated as Trajan Decius or Decius, was the emperor of the Roman Empire from 249 to 251.
A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was procla ...
,
Trebonianus Gallus
Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus (206 – August 253) was Roman emperor from June 251 to August 253, in a joint rule with his son Volusianus.
Early life
Gallus was born in Italy, in a family with respected Etruscan senatorial background. He had ...
,
Aemilian
Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus ( – September 253), also known as Aemilian, was Roman emperor for three months in 253.
Commander of the Moesian troops, he obtained an important victory against the invading Goths and was, for this reason, acclaim ...
and all but the end of the reign of Valerian is missing in all the manuscripts, and it has been argued that biographies of
Nerva
Nerva (; originally Marcus Cocceius Nerva; 8 November 30 – 27 January 98) was Roman emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became emperor when aged almost 66, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the succeeding rulers of the Flavian dy ...
and
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
have also been lost at the beginning of the work, which may suggest the compilation might have been a direct continuation of
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
' ''
The Twelve Caesars
''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The g ...
''. It has been theorized that the mid-3rd-century lacuna might actually be a deliberate literary device of the author or authors, saving the labour of covering Emperors for whom little source material may have been available.
Despite devoting whole books to ephemeral or in some cases non-existent usurpers, there are no independent biographies of the factual, but short reigns of Emperors
Quintillus
Marcus Aurelius Claudius Quintillus (died 270) was a Roman emperor. He was a brother of Emperor Claudius Gothicus, whom he succeeded after Claudius' death in 270. Quintillus' claim to be emperor was challenged by Aurelian, who was proclaimed em ...
and
Florian, whose reigns are merely briefly noted towards the end of the biographies of their respective predecessors,
Claudius Gothicus
Marcus Aurelius Claudius "Gothicus" (10 May 214 – January/April 270), also known as Claudius II, was Roman emperor from 268 to 270. During his reign he fought successfully against the Alemanni and decisively defeated the Goths at the Battle ...
and
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
. For nearly 300 years after Casaubon's edition, though much of the ''Historia Augusta'' was treated with some scepticism, it was used by historians as an authentic source –
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is k ...
used it extensively in the first volume of the ''
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to th ...
''. However, "in modern times most scholars read the work as a piece of deliberate mystification written much later than its purported date, however the fundamentalist view still has distinguished support. (...) The ''Historia Augusta'' is also, unfortunately, the principal Latin source for a century of Roman history. The historian must make use of it, but only with extreme circumspection and caution."
Textual transmission
Existing manuscripts and witnesses of the ''Historia Augusta'' fall into three groups:
# A manuscript of the first quarter of the ninth century, Vatican Pal. lat. 899 (''Codex Palatinus''), known as P, and its direct and indirect copies. P was written at
Lorsch
Lorsch is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hessen, Germany, 60 km south of Frankfurt. Lorsch is well known for the Lorsch Abbey, which has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Geography
Location
Lorsch lies about 5 km wes ...
in
Caroline minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one r ...
. The text in this manuscript has several ''
lacunae'' marked with dots indicating the missing letters, a confusion in the order of the biographies between ''Verus'' and ''Alexander'', and the transposition of several passages: two long ones which correspond to a quire of the original which became loose and was then inserted in a wrong place, and a similar transposition in ''Carus''. P is also distinguished by a succession of six centuries of editorial corrections, beginning with the original scribe, and includes such worthies as
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
and
Poggio Bracciolini
Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), usually referred to simply as Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar and an early Renaissance humanist. He was responsible for rediscovering and recovering many classi ...
; none of these editors betray any knowledge of any other witness.
# A group of 15th-century manuscripts, designated as Σ. Not only are the lives rearranged in chronological order, but the corruptions present in P have been subjected to drastic emendations or omitted altogether. Beginning with Dr. Ernst Hohl, some have asserted that the improvements in the text come from a source independent of P. Although admitting that "this question still remains to be answered definitively", author Peter Marshall noted that research undertaken through to the 1980s had improved scholarly knowledge concerning the methods and abilities of early Italian humanists, and concludes by saying that "the Σ manuscripts nowhere provide readings which are beyond the powers of the humanists active at the time.
# Three different sets of excerpts, one of which
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...
suggested was possibly the work of Sedulius Scottus. How any are related to P is unclear.
In Marshall's opinion, the best scholarly editions are those by H. Peter (Teubner, 2nd ed. 1884), and E. Hohl (Teubner, 1971, reissue of 1965 revised by Ch. Samberger & W. Seyfarth).
A copy of the Codex Palatinus (possibly the one made for Petrarch in 1356) was the basis of the ''
editio princeps In classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand.
For ...
'' of the ''History'', published in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in 1475. A subsequent printed version (the Aldine edition) was published at
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
in 1516, and this was followed closely by an edition edited by
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
, and published by
Johann Froben in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
in 1518.
The dating problem
![Hermann Dessau](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Hermann_Dessau.jpg)
In 1776, Gibbon observed that there was something wrong with the numbers and names of the imperial biographers, and that this had already been recognised by older historians who had written on that subject.
Gerardus Vossius
Gerrit Janszoon Vos (March or April 1577, Heidelberg – 19 March 1649, Amsterdam), often known by his Latin name Gerardus Vossius, was a Dutch classical scholar and theologian.
Life
He was the son of Johannes (Jan) Vos, a Protestant from the Ne ...
, who published ''de Historicis Latinis'' in 1627, discussed the problem of the distribution of the various vitae among the ''scriptores'', but also the problems about the authors cited by them. Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont
Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont (30 November 163710 January 1698) was a French ecclesiastical historian.
Life
He was born in Paris into a wealthy Jansenist family, and was educated at the ''Petites écoles'' of Port-Royal, where his histori ...
, who published ''Histoire des Empereurs et des autres Princes qui ont régné durant les six premiers Siècles de l'Eglise'' in 1690, provided a wholesale denunciation of the biographies as being worthless, full of contradictions and chronological errors. A clear example was the referencing of the biographer 'Lampridius' (who was apparently writing his biographies after 324) by 'Vopiscus', who was meant to be writing his biographies in 305–306. Then in 1889,
Hermann Dessau, who had become increasingly concerned by the large number of anachronistic terms,
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...
vocabulary, and especially the host of obviously false proper names in the work, proposed that the six authors were all fictitious
persona
A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally ref ...
e, and that the work was in fact composed by a single author in the late 4th century, probably in the reign of
Theodosius I
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
. Among his supporting evidence was that the life of
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa (Roman province), Africa. As a young man he advanced thro ...
appeared to have made use of a passage from the mid-4th-century historian
Aurelius Victor
Sextus Aurelius Victor (c. 320 – c. 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a short history of imperial Rome, entitled ''De Caesaribus'' and covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. The work w ...
,
[Sev. 17.5–19.4 was copied from Victor, Caes. 20.1 and 10–30; in both passages there is a major error, which mixes up the emperor ]Didius Julianus
Marcus Didius Julianus (; 29 January 133 or 137 – 2 June 193) was Roman emperor for nine weeks from March to June 193, during the Year of the Five Emperors. Julianus had a promising political career, governing several provinces, including Dal ...
with the legal scholar Salvius Julianus and that the life of
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...
likewise uses material from
Eutropius.
[MA 16.3–18.2 was lifted from Eutropius 8.11]
In the decades following Dessau, many scholars argued to preserve at least some of the six ''Scriptores'' as distinct persons and in favour of the first-hand authenticity for the content. As early as 1890,
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...
postulated a Theodosian 'editor' of the ''Scriptores work, an idea that has resurfaced many times since. Hermann Peter (editor of the ''Historia Augusta'' and of the ''
Historicorum Romanorum reliquiae
The ''Historicorum Romanorum reliquiae'' is the "monumental" two-volume collection of scholarly editions of fragmentary Roman historical texts edited by Hermann Peter and published between 1870 and 1914. Peter published the Latin editions of these ...
'') proposed a date of 330 for when the work was written, based upon an analysis of style and language. Others, such as
Norman H. Baynes
Norman Hepburn Baynes (1877–1961) was a 20th-century British historian of the Byzantine Empire.
Career
Baynes was Professor of Byzantine History at University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve t ...
, abandoned the early 4th-century date but only advanced it as far as the reign of
Julian the Apostate
Julian ( la, Flavius Claudius Julianus; grc-gre, Ἰουλιανός ; 331 – 26 June 363) was Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplato ...
(useful for arguing the work was intended as
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
propaganda).
In the 1960s and 1970s however Dessau's original arguments received powerful restatement and expansion from Sir
Ronald Syme
Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...
, who devoted three books to the subject and was prepared to date the writing of the work closely in the region of AD 395. Other recent studies also show much consistency of style, and most scholars now accept the theory of a single author of unknown identity, writing after 395. Although it was believed that the ''Historia Augusta'' did not reference any material from
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
' history, which was finished before 391 and which covered the same period, this has now been shown not to be the case, and that the ''Historia Augusta'' does in fact make reference to Ammianus' history.
Not all scholars have accepted the theory of a forger working around the last decades of the 4th century or the beginning of the 5th.
Arnaldo Momigliano
Arnaldo Dante Momigliano (5 September 1908 – 1 September 1987) was an Italian historian of classical antiquity, known for his work in historiography, and characterised by Donald Kagan as "the world's leading student of the writing of history i ...
and
A. H. M. Jones
Arnold Hugh Martin Jones FBA (9 March 1904 – 9 April 1970) (known as A. H. M. Jones or Hugo Jones) was a prominent 20th-century British historian of classical antiquity, particularly of the later Roman Empire.
Biography
Jones's best-known wor ...
were the most prominent 20th century critics of the Dessau-Syme theory amongst English-speaking scholars. Momigliano, summarizing the literature from Dessau down to 1954, defined the question as "res iudicanda" (i.e. "a matter to be decided") and not as "res iudicata" ("a matter that has been decided"). Momigliano reviewed every book published on the topic by Sir Ronald Syme, and provided counter arguments to most if not all of Syme's arguments.
For instance, the reference in the ''Life of Probus'' about the emperor's descendants which has been taken to refer to
Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus
Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus ( 358–390) was a leading Roman aristocrat of the later 4th century AD, renowned for his wealth, power and social connections. The son of the consul Petronius Probinus, he married Anicia Faltonia Proba and h ...
(consul in 371) and his family may, in the opinion of Momigliano, equally refer to the earlier members of the family, which was prominent throughout the 4th century, such as
Petronius Probinus (consul in 341) and
Petronius Probianus
Petronius Probianus ( 315–331 AD) was a politician of the Roman Empire.
Life
Probianus was a member of the '' Petronii Probi'', a family of the senatorial aristocracy. He was the son of Pompeius Probus, consul in 310, the father of Petroniu ...
(consul in 322). Momigliano's opinion was that there was insufficient evidence to dismiss a composition date of the early 4th century, and that any post-Constantinian anachronisms could be explained by an editor working on the material at a later date, perhaps during the reigns of
Constantius II
Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germani ...
or
Julian.
Other opinions included Dr H Stern's, who postulated that the ''History'' was composed by a team of writers during the reign of Constantius II after the defeat of
Magnentius
Magnus Magnentius ( 303 – 11 August 353) was a Roman general and usurper against Constantius II from 350 to 353. Of Germanic descent, Magnentius served with distinction in Gaul under the Western emperor Constans. On 18 January 350 Magnentius ...
on behalf of the
senatorial aristocracy who had supported the usurper. In the 21st century,
Alan Cameron rebutted a number of Syme's and Barnes' arguments for a composition date c. 395–400, suggesting a composition date between 361 and the 380s.
Six ''scriptores'' or a single author?
Linked to the problem of dating the composition of the ''History'' is the question about the authorship of the work. Taking the ''History'' at face value, there is clearly a division between the authors named prior and after the presence of the interrupting lacuna. For the first half of the ''History'', four ''scriptores'' are present, and the biographies are divided in a remarkably erratic fashion:
* Aelius Spartianus (7 lives): ''Hadrian'', ''Aelius'', ''Didius Julianus'', ''Severus'', ''Niger'', ''Caracalla'' and ''Geta''.
* Julius Capitolinus (9 lives): ''Antoninus'', ''Marcus'', ''Lucius Verus'', ''Pertinax'', ''Albinus'', ''Macrinus'', ''The Maximini'', ''The Gordiani'', and ''Maximus and Balbinus''.
* Vulcacius Gallicanus (1 life): ''Avidius Cassius''.
* Aelius Lampridius (4 lives): ''Commodus'', ''Diadumenus'', ''Heliogabalus'' and ''Severus Alexander''.
Of these four, Spartianus and Gallicanus claim to be undertaking a complete set of imperial biographies from
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
onwards, while Lampridius' stated intention was to write a collection of biographies that would deal with the Gordians, Claudius II, Aurelian, Diocletian, Maximian and the four rivals of Constantine. Capitolinus also implied that he was writing more biographies than are present in the ''History''.
The second half of the ''History'' is divided between two ''scriptores''. Unlike the first half, the emperors tackled in this section are grouped logically, and are divided roughly in half between the two ''scriptores'' in chronological sequence:
* Trebellius Pollio (4 lives): ''Valerian'', ''Gallienus'', ''Tyranni Triginta'' and ''Claudius''.
* Flavius Vopiscus Syracusanus (5 lives): ''Aurelian'', ''Tacitus'', ''Probus'', ''Quadrigae Tyrannorum'' and ''Carus, Carinus and Numerian''.
In terms of any acknowledgement of the mutual existence between the ''scriptores'', only Flavius Vopiscus (ostensibly writing in 305 or 306)
[In the ''Aurelian'', Vopiscus refers to Constantinus Chlorus as emperor and Diocletian as a private citizen, dating this composition between Diocletian's abdication on 1 May 305 and Constantius' death on 25 July 306] refers to any of the other authors (specifically Trebellius Pollio, Julius Capitolinus and Aelius Lampridius). None of the other five demonstrate any awareness of the existence of any of their 'colleagues'. However, these references cause difficulties when these authors also address Constantine in their dedications, as Vopiscus was also doing. For instance, Capitolinus mostly addresses Diocletian, but in the ''Albinus'', ''Maximini'' and ''Gordiani'' he addresses Constantine in a fashion that suggests he is writing after 306.
The theory that there was a single author, as initially postulated by
Hermann Dessau, is based on the difficulties inherent in having a single work comprising a number of individuals but without any textual evidence of an editor who brought the material together. This is especially evident in that the text has examples of stated intentions by an author to write a life of one of the emperors, only for that life to be completed by another of the ''scriptores''.
[For example, Spartianus declares that he is going to write a life of Verus, but that life is attributed to Capitolinus.] If those statements are true, and those additional lives were completed, then an editor must have been involved in the project in order to select one ''scriptors life over another's.
However, the presence of a post-Constantinian editor, as originally postulated by
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...
, still has notable support, most recently articulated by Daniel Den Hengst, who suggests that the editor was the author of the second half of the ''History'', operating under the pseudonyms of Pollio and Vopiscus. Further, that this editor not only wrote the secondary lives in the first half, but he was also responsible for the insertions into the primary lives in that series. He takes the view that the vast stylistic differences between the two halves of the ''History'' means they cannot have been written by the same author.
Nevertheless, if the validity of six independent authors is accepted, there are still issues, as the way they approached their work does show similar themes and details. All six not only provide biographies for the emperors, but also for the ''Caesars'' and usurpers. They describe their work and approach in very similar language, and quote otherwise unknown historians and biographers, such as Junius Cordus. They collectively share many errors, such as calling
Diadumenian
Diadumenian (; la, Marcus Opellius Antoninus Diadumenianus; 14September 208 – June 218) was the son of the Roman Emperor Macrinus, and served as his co-ruler for a brief time in 218. His mother was Nonia Celsa, whose name may be fictitiou ...
us "Diadumenus". They also share much idiosyncratic content and similar language, with particular focus on women, wine and military discipline, and were fixated on poor plays on words ascribing personality traits to certain emperors, for instance Verus was truthful, while Severus was a severe individual. Additionally, the authors shared certain stylistic characteristics that has been suggested would not naturally occur between individuals writing separately. For instance, the authors all happen to use the word ''occido'' with respect to killing (a total of 42 occurrences), but only once do any of them use the alternative word of ''interficio''. This ratio is not found with any other writers in this time period and for this genre. Finally, each of the six ''scriptores'' authored fictional lives for some of their biographies, all of them using fake sources, documents and acclamations.
It has been postulated that the names of the ''scriptores'' themselves are also a form of literary playfulness, not only mocking both legitimate authors and historians, but also the narrative itself. The names Trebellius Pollio and Flavius Vopiscus are sourced in various ways from
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
's writings, as is the name Capitolinus. Further, the word ''vopiscus'' is a rare Latin term, referring to a twin who survives, while its sibling died ''in utero''; this has been interpreted to refer to "Flavius Vopiscus" as being the final one to survive from the six authors of the ''History''. Vulcacius is believed to be a mockery of
Volcatius Sedigitus, who was a historical literary critic with some association with humor. The meanings behind the other two ''scriptores'' (Spartianus and Lampridius) have eluded interpretation.
Finally, it should also be noted that the results of recent computer-assisted stylistic analysis concerning the single vs multiple authorship have proven to be inconclusive:
"Computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
-aided stylistic analysis of the work has, however, returned ambiguous results; some elements of style are quite uniform throughout the work, while others vary in a way that suggests multiple authorship. To what extent this is due to the fact that portions of the work are obviously compiled from multiple sources is unclear. Several computer analyses of the text have been done to determine whether there were multiple authors. Many of them conclude that there was but a single author, but disagree on methodology. However, several studies done by the same team concluded there were several authors, though they were not sure how many."
Primary and secondary Vitae
A unique feature of the ''Historia Augusta'' is that it purports to supply the biographies not only of reigning Emperors (called "primary lives" by modern scholars), but also "secondary lives" of their designated heirs, junior colleagues, and usurpers who unsuccessfully claimed the supreme power. Thus among the biographies of 2nd-century and early 3rd-century figures are included
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
's heir
Aelius Caesar
Lucius Aelius Caesar (13 January 101 – 1 January 138) was the father of Emperor Lucius Verus. In 136, he was adopted by Hadrian and named heir to the throne. He died before Hadrian and thus never became emperor. After Lucius' death, he was re ...
, and the usurpers
Avidius Cassius
Gaius Avidius Cassius ( 130 – July 175 AD) was a Syrian Roman general and usurper. He was born in Cyrrhus, and was the son of Gaius Avidius Heliodorus, who served as ''praefectus'' or governor of Roman Egypt, and Julia Cassia Alexandra, who w ...
,
Pescennius Niger
Gaius Pescennius Niger (c. 135 – 194) was Roman Emperor from 193 to 194 during the Year of the Five Emperors. He claimed the imperial throne in response to the murder of Pertinax and the elevation of Didius Julianus, but was defeated by a riva ...
and
Clodius Albinus
Decimus Clodius Albinus ( 150 – 19 February 197) was a Roman imperial pretender between 193 and 197. He was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) after the murder ...
,
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor S ...
's brother
Geta
Geta may refer to:
Places
*Geta (woreda), a woreda in Ethiopia's Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region
*Geta, Åland, a municipality in Finland
*Geta, Nepal, a town in Attariya Municipality, Kailali District, Seti Zone, Nepal
*Get ...
and
Macrinus
Marcus Opellius Macrinus (; – June 218) was Roman emperor from April 217 to June 218, reigning jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. As a member of the equestrian class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senatori ...
' son
Diadumenianus. None of these pieces contain much in the way of solid information: all are marked by rhetorical padding and obvious fiction. The biography of Marcus Aurelius' colleague
Lucius Verus
Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 – January/February 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together with ...
, which Mommsen thought 'secondary', is however rich in apparently reliable information and has been vindicated by Syme as belonging to the 'primary' series.
The 'secondary' lives allowed the author to exercise freedom in the invention of events, places and people without the need to conform to authentic historical facts. As the work proceeds the author's inventiveness undergoes an increasing degree of elaboration as legitimate historical sources begin to run out, eventually composing largely fictional accounts such as the "biographies" of the
"Thirty Tyrants", whom the author claimed had risen as usurpers under
Gallienus
Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...
. Moreover, after the biography of
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor S ...
the 'primary' biographies, of the emperors themselves, begin to assume the rhetorical and fictive qualities previously confined to the 'secondary' ones, probably because the secondary lives were written after the ''Life of Caracalla''.
The biography of
Macrinus
Marcus Opellius Macrinus (; – June 218) was Roman emperor from April 217 to June 218, reigning jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. As a member of the equestrian class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senatori ...
is notoriously unreliable, and after a partial reversion to reliability in the ''Life of
Elagabalus
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 11/12 March 222), better known by his nickname "Elagabalus" (, ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for s ...
'', the ''
Alexander Severus
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – 21/22 March 235) was a Roman emperor, who reigned from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his slain cousin Elagabalus in 222. Alexander himself was ...
'', one of the longest biographies in the entire work, develops into a kind of exemplary and rhetorical fable on the theme of the wise
philosopher king
The philosopher king is a hypothetical ruler in whom political skill is combined with philosophical knowledge. The concept of a city-state ruled by philosophers is first explored in Plato's ''Republic'', written around 375 BC. Plato argued that ...
. Clearly the author's previous sources had given out, but also his inventive talents were developing. He still makes use of some recognized sources –
Herodian
Herodian or Herodianus ( el, Ἡρωδιανός) of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch" (c. 170 – c. 240), was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled ''History of the Empire from the Death o ...
up to 238, and probably
Dexippus
Publius Herennius Dexippus ( el, Δέξιππος; c. 210–273 AD), Greek historian, statesman and general, was an hereditary priest of the Eleusinian family of the Kerykes, and held the offices of ''archon basileus'' and ''eponymous'' in Athen ...
in the later books, for the entire imperial period the ''
Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte
The ('Enmann's History of the Emperors') is a modern term for a hypothesized Latin historical work, written in the 4th century but now lost.
The German scholar Alexander Enmann made in 1884 a comparison of several late Roman historical works and ...
'' as well as
Aurelius Victor
Sextus Aurelius Victor (c. 320 – c. 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a short history of imperial Rome, entitled ''De Caesaribus'' and covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. The work w ...
,
Eutropius,
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
and
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
– but the biographies are increasingly tracts of invention in which occasional nuggets of fact are embedded.
However, even where recognisable facts are present, their use in the ''History'' cannot be taken at face value. In the ''Life of Alexander Severus'', the ''History'' makes the claim at 24.4 that
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
had considered banning male prostitution but had decided against making it illegal, although the author added that the emperor
Philip
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
did later ban the practice. Although the claim about Alexander is false, the note about Philip is true – the source of this is Aurelius Victor (28.6–7, and who in turn sourced it from the ''Kaisergeschichte''), and the ''History'' even copies Victor's style of moralising asides, which were not in the ''Kaisergeschichte''. Normally, this anecdote would have been included in a Life of Philip, but its absence saw the author include it in another life. This is taken as evidence that the mid-work lacuna is deliberate, as the author was apparently reluctant to abandon any useful material that could be gleaned from the ''Kaisergeschichte''.
Genre and purpose
Interpretations of the purpose of the ''History'' also vary considerably, some considering it a work of fiction or
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
intended to entertain (perhaps in the vein of ''
1066 and All That
''1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates'' is a tongue-in-cheek reworking of the history of England. Written by W. C. Sellar and R. J ...
''), others viewing it as a pagan attack on
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, the writer having concealed his identity for personal safety. Under this anti-Christianity theory, the lacuna covering the period from Philip the Arab through to the end of Valerian's reign is seen as deliberate, as it freed the author from addressing Philip's reign, as by the late 4th century, Philip was being claimed as a Christian emperor, as well as not discussing Decius and Valerian's reigns, as they were well known persecutors of the Church. It also avoided dealing with their fates, as Christians saw their ends as divine retribution for their persecutions. In fact, where mentioned, both Decius and Valerian are viewed very positively by the author of the ''History''. Further, it is noted that the ''History'' also parodies Christian scripture. For instance, in the ''Life of Alexander Severus'' there is: "It is said that on the day after his birth a star of the first magnitude was visible for the entire day at Arca Caesarea", while "where, save at Rome, is there an imperial power that rules an empire?" is considered to be a response to 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7.
Syme argued that it was a mistake to regard it as a historical work at all and that no clear propaganda purpose could be determined. He theorized that the ''History'' is primarily a literary product – an exercise in
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
produced by a 'rogue scholiast' catering to (and making fun of or parodying) the antiquarian tendencies of the Theodosian age, in which Suetonius and
Marius Maximus
Lucius Marius Maximus Perpetuus Aurelianus (more commonly known as Marius Maximus) (c. AD 160 – c. AD 230) was a Roman biographer, writing in Latin, who in the early decades of the 3rd century AD wrote a series of biographies of twelve Emperors ...
were fashionable reading and Ammianus Marcellinus was producing sober history in the manner of
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
. (The ''History'' implausibly makes the Emperor Tacitus (275–276) a descendant and connoisseur of the historian). In fact in a passage on the ''Quadriga tyrannorum'' – the 'four-horse chariot of usurpers' said to have aspired to the purple in the reign of
Probus – the ''History'' itself accuses Marius Maximus of being a producer of 'mythical history': ''homo omnium verbosissimus, qui et mythistoricis se voluminibis implicavit'' ('the most long-winded of men, who furthermore wrapped himself up in volumes of historical fiction'). The term ''mythistoricis'' occurs nowhere else in Latin. Of considerable significance in this regard is the opening section of the life of
Aurelian
Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited t ...
, in which 'Flavius Vopiscus' records a supposed conversation he had with the
City Prefect
The ''praefectus urbanus'', also called ''praefectus urbi'' or urban prefect in English, was prefect of the city of Rome, and later also of Constantinople. The office originated under the Roman kings, continued during the Republic and Empire, and ...
of Rome during the festival of
Hilaria
The Hilaria (; Latin "the cheerful ones", a term derived from the borrowed adjective grc, ἱλαρός "cheerful, merry") were ancient Roman religious festivals celebrated on the March equinox to honor Cybele.
Origins
The term seems origina ...
in which the Prefect urges him to write as he chooses and invent what he does not know.
![Cicero - Musei Capitolini](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Cicero_-_Musei_Capitolini.JPG)
Other examples of the work as a parody can be taken from the names of the ''Scriptores'' themselves. It has been suggested that "Trebellius Pollio" and "Flavius Vopiscus Syracusius" were invented, with one theory arguing that their origins are based on passages in Cicero's letters and speeches in the 1st century BC. With respect to "Trebellius Pollio", this is a reference to Lucius Trebellius, a supporter of
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autoc ...
who was mentioned in the
Philippics A philippic ()http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/English/philippic is a fiery, damning speech, or tirade, delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term is most famously associated with two noted orators of the ancient world: ...
(''Phil'', 11.14), and another reference to him in ''
Epistulae ad Familiares
''Epistulae ad Familiares'' (''Letters to Friends'') is a collection of letters between Roman politician and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero and various public and private figures. The letters in this collection, together with Cicero's other letter ...
'' along with the term "Pollentiam" reminded the ''History's'' author of
Asinius Pollio, who was a fellow
plebeian tribune
Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of ...
alongside Lucius Trebellius and a historian as well. This is reinforced by noted similarities between the fictitious criticism of "Trebellius Pollio" by "Flavius Vopiscus" at the start of the ''Life of Aurelian'', with similar comments made by Asinius Pollio about Julius Caesar's
published ''Commentaries''. Significantly, Lucius Trebellius adopted the
cognomen
A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became here ...
''Fides'' for his actions as Plebeian Tribune in 47 BC to resist laws that would abolish debts; later when he fell into debt himself and began supporting debt abolishment, Cicero used his cognomen as a method of abuse and ridicule. According to this theory it is no coincidence that, in selecting the name "Trebellius Pollio", the author is playing with the concepts of ''fides'' and ''fidelitas historica'' at the precise point in the lives that are assigned to "Trebellius Pollio" and "Flavius Vopiscus Syracusius".
In the case of "Flavius Vopiscus Syracusius", it was argued that it too was inspired by the Philippics' reference to "Caesar Vopiscus" (''Phil'', 11.11), with Cicero's reference to Vopiscus immediately preceding his reference to Lucius Trebellius. The cognomen "Syracusius" was selected because Cicero's ''
In Verrem
"In Verrem" ("Against Verres") is a series of speeches made by Cicero in 70 BC, during the corruption and extortion trial of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily. The speeches, which were concurrent with Cicero's election to the aedileship, ...
'' is filled with references to "Syracusae" and "Syracusani". Further, in Cicero's ''
De Oratore
''De Oratore'' (''On the Orator''; not to be confused with ''Orator'') is a dialogue written by Cicero in 55 BC. It is set in 91 BC, when Lucius Licinius Crassus dies, just before the Social War and the civil war between Marius and Sulla, du ...
'', Cicero refers to Strabo Vopiscus as an authority on humour, during which he refers to the reputation of Sicilians when it came to humour, and
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
was one of the principal cities of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
. Such references were intended as a "knowing wink" to the readers of the ''History'', who would recognise the mockery of the historical material by the author. This corresponds with David Rohrbacher's view of the ''History'', who maintains that the author has no political or theological agenda; rather that the ''History'' is the equivalent of a literary puzzle or game, with the reader's understanding and enjoyment of the numerous elaborate and complicated allusions contained within it being the only purpose behind its existence.
In support of this theory, Rohrbacher provides an example with respect to Ammianus Marcellinus' work. In one passage (Amm. 19.12.14), Ammianus describes the Christian emperor Constantius II's attempts to prosecute cases of magic under treason laws, in particular the death penalty applied to those men who were condemned simply for wearing an amulet to ward off diseases: "''si qui remedia quartanae vel doloris alterius collo gestaret''" ("For if anyone wore on his neck an amulet against the quartan ague or any other complaint"). There is a very similar imperial ruling described in the ''Life of Caracalla'' (5.7), which makes no sense in Caracalla's time, and is worded in almost exactly the same way: "''qui remedia quartanis tertianisque collo adnexas gestarent''" ("wearing them around their necks as preventives of quartan or tertian fever").
Other theories include
André Chastagnol
André Chastagnol (21 February 1920 – 2 September 1996) was a French historian, specializing in Latin epigraphy and literature.
After teaching at the Universities of Algiers, Rennes and Paris-X, he finished his career as a professor at the ...
's minimalist opinion that the author was a pagan who supported the Senate and the Roman aristocracy and scorned the lower classes and the barbarian races, while François Paschoud proposed that the last books of the ''History'' are in fact a type of alternative historical narrative, with events and the personalities of recent 4th century emperors woven into the fabric of a series of 3rd century emperors. According to Paschoud, the representation of the emperor Probus is in fact a version of Julian, with
Carus
Marcus Aurelius Carus (c. 222 – July or August 283) was Roman emperor from 282 to 283. During his short reign, Carus fought the Germanic tribes and Sarmatians along the Danube frontier with success.
He died while campaigning against th ...
substituting for
Valentinian I
Valentinian I ( la, Valentinianus; 32117 November 375), sometimes called Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor, he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces. Vale ...
and Carinus for
Gratian
Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and wa ...
.
Historical value
From the sixth century to the end of the 19th century, historians had recognized that the ''Historia Augusta'' was a flawed and not a particularly reliable source, and since the 20th century modern scholars have tended to treat it with extreme caution. Older historians, such as
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is k ...
, not fully aware of its problems with respect to the fictitious elements contained within it, generally treated the information preserved within it as authentic. For instance, in Gibbon's account of the reign of Gallienus, he uncritically reproduces the ''Historia Augusta's'' biased and largely fictional account of that reign. So when Gibbon states "The repeated intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebellions, he received with a careless smile; and singling out, with affected contempt, some particular production of the lost province, he carelessly asked, whether Rome must be ruined, unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt, and arras cloth from Gaul", he is reworking the passage in ''The Two Gallieni'':
I am ashamed to relate what Gallienus used often to say at this time, when such things were happening, as though jesting amid the ills of mankind. For when he was told of the revolt of Egypt, he is said to have exclaimed "What! We cannot do without Egyptian linen!" and when informed that Asia had been devastated both by the violence of nature and by the inroads of the Scythians, he said, "What! We cannot do without saltpetre!" and when Gaul was lost, he is reported to have laughed and remarked, "Can the commonwealth be safe without Atrebatic cloaks?" Thus, in short, with regard to all parts of the world, as he lost them, he would jest, as though seeming to have suffered the loss of some article of trifling service.
Gibbon then noted after this passage: "This singular character has, I believe, been fairly transmitted to us. The reign of his immediate successor was short and busy; and the historians who wrote before the elevation of the family of Constantine could not have the most remote interest to misrepresent the character of Gallienus." Modern scholars now believe that Gallienus' reputation was posthumously maligned, that he was one of the main architects of the later Roman imperial structure, and that his reforms were built upon by succeeding emperors.
Nevertheless, it is unwise to dismiss it altogether as it is also the principal Latin source regarding a century of Roman history. For example, scholars had assumed that Veturius Macrinus, mentioned in the Life of
Didius Julianus
Marcus Didius Julianus (; 29 January 133 or 137 – 2 June 193) was Roman emperor for nine weeks from March to June 193, during the Year of the Five Emperors. Julianus had a promising political career, governing several provinces, including Dal ...
, was an invention of the author, like so many other names. However, an inscription was uncovered which confirmed his existence and his post as
praetorian prefect
The praetorian prefect ( la, praefectus praetorio, el, ) was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders be ...
in 193. Likewise, the information that
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...
was constructed during Hadrian's reign and that the
Antonine Wall
The Antonine Wall, known to the Romans as ''Vallum Antonini'', was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twe ...
was built during the reign of
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius (Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Born into a senatoria ...
are recorded by no other extant ancient writer apart from the ''Historia Augusta'', the veracity of which has been confirmed by inscriptions.
False documents and authorities
A peculiarity of the work is its inclusion of a large number of purportedly authentic documents such as extracts from Senate proceedings and letters written by imperial personages. In all it contains around 150 alleged documents, including 68 letters, 60 speeches and proposals to the people or the senate, and 20 senatorial decrees and acclamations. Records like these are quite distinct from the rhetorical speeches often inserted by ancient historians – it was accepted practice for the writer to invent these himself – and on the few occasions when historians (such as
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisan o ...
in his work on
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina ( 108 BC – January 62 BC), known in English as Catiline (), was a Roman politician and soldier. He is best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy, a failed attempt to violently seize control of the R ...
or Suetonius in his ''Twelve Caesars'') include such documents, they have generally been regarded as genuine; but almost all those found in the Historia Augusta have been rejected as fabrications, partly on stylistic grounds, partly because they refer to military titles or points of administrative organisation which are otherwise unrecorded until long after the purported date, or for other suspicious content.
The ''History'' moreover cites dozens of otherwise unrecorded historians, biographers, letter-writers, knowledgeable friends of the writers, and so on, most of whom must be regarded as expressions of the author's creative imagination. For example, the biographer "Cordus" is cited twenty-seven times in the ''History''. Long considered to be a real, but lost, biographer until midway into the 20th century, with a couple of minor exceptions where material claimed to be sourced from Cordus is in reality from Suetonius or Cicero, every other citation is fake, providing details which have been invented and ascribed to Cordus. Cordus is mentioned almost exclusively in those Vitae where the ''History'' used Herodian as the primary source, and his appearances vanish once Herodian's history comes to an end.
The author would also misattribute material taken from a legitimate historian and ascribe it to a fictitious author. For instance, Herodian is used more often than he is explicitly referenced in the ''History''; in addition to the ten times he is correctly cited, three times his material is cited as "Arrianus", probably to multiply the author's sources. Further, not only does the author copy from Herodian without citation (either direct lifts, abbreviations or supplementations), he often distorts Herodian, to suit his literary objective.
Then there is the deliberate citation of false information which is then ascribed legitimate authors. For instance, at a minimum, five of the ''History's'' sixteen citations of Dexippus are considered to be fake, and Dexippus appears to be mentioned, not as a principal source of information, but rather as a contradictory author to be contrasted against information sourced from Herodian or the ''Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte''. In addition
Quintus Gargilius Martialis, who produced works on horticulture and medicine, is cited twice as a biographer, which is considered to be another false attribution.
Examples of false historical events and personages
The untrustworthiness of the ''History'' stems from the multifarious kinds of fraudulent (as opposed to simply inaccurate) information that run through the work, becoming ever more dominant as it proceeds. The various biographies are ascribed to different invented 'authors', and continue with the dedicatory epistles to Diocletian and Constantine, the quotation of fabricated documents, the citation of non-historical authorities, the invention of persons (extending even to the subjects of some of the minor biographies), presentation of contradictory information to confuse an issue while making a show of objectivity, deliberately false statements, and the inclusion of material which can be shown to relate to events or personages of the late 4th century rather than the period supposedly being written about. For example:
* The biography of Geta states he was born in Mediolanum on 27 May; the year is not specified but it was 'in the suffect consulships of Severus and Vitellius'. He was actually born in Rome on 7 March 189; there was no such pair of suffect
consuls
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
in this or any other year; however, it has been suggested that the names for these persons be amended to be Severus and Vettulenus, and that these men were suffect consuls sometime before 192.
* In the ''Vita Commodi'', the biography on emperor
Commodus
Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...
, there is much doubt about the authenticity of the sources used and cited. Lampridius (the pseudonym the author works with here) claims to have used Marius Maximus on multiple occasions for his work. One instance forms a case in point: Lampridius (supposedly) quotes the senatorial speeches in Maximus’ work which were held after Commodus’ death. However, it is unclear whether the references to Maximus are genuine or made up by the author to give himself a sense of authority and expertise. Baldwin thinks that the senatorial speeches are probably a figment of Lampridius’ imagination. Molinier-Arbo, however, believes in their authenticity. She suggests that the full report of the ''acta senatus'' (lit. acts of the senate) was handed down in the ''acta urbis'' (a kind of city gazette). Marius Maximus could have used this report for his work and Lampridius could have used it later on.
* A letter of Hadrian written from Egypt to his brother-in-law
Servianus is quoted at length (and was accepted as genuine by many authorities well into the 20th century). Servianus is saluted as consul, and Hadrian mentions his (adopted) son
Lucius Aelius Caesar
Lucius Aelius Caesar (13 January 101 – 1 January 138) was the father of Emperor Lucius Verus. In 136, he was adopted by Hadrian and named heir to the throne. He died before Hadrian and thus never became emperor. After Lucius' death, he was re ...
: but Hadrian was in Egypt in 130, Servianus' consulship fell in 134, and Hadrian adopted Aelius in 136. The letter is said to have been published by Hadrian's freedman Phlegon, with the letter's existence not mentioned anywhere except in the ''History'', in another suspect passage. A passage in the letter dealing with the frivolousness of Egyptian religious beliefs refers to the
Patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...
, head of the Jewish community in the Empire. This office only came into being after Hadrian put down the Jewish revolt of 132, and the passage is probably meant in mockery of the powerful late 4th-century Patriarch,
Gamaliel
Gamaliel the Elder (; also spelled Gamliel; he, רַבַּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הַזָּקֵן ''Rabban Gamlīʾēl hazZāqēn''; grc-koi, Γαμαλιὴλ ὁ Πρεσβύτερος ''Gamaliēl ho Presbýteros''), or Rabban Gamaliel I, ...
.
* Decius revives the office of
Censor; the Senate acclaims Valerian as worthy to hold it in a decree dated 27 October 251. The decree is brought to Decius (on campaign against the
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
) and he summons Valerian to bestow the honour. The revival of the censorship is fictitious, and Decius had been dead for several months by the date stated.
* Valerian holds an imperial council in
Byzantium
Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...
, attended by several named dignitaries, none of them otherwise attested and some holding offices not known to exist until the following century, at which the general 'Ulpius Crinitus' (a name apparently chosen to evoke the military glories of the Emperor Trajan) takes the young Aurelian (destined to be another military Emperor) as his adopted son. There are no grounds to believe this is anything other than invention.
![Trebellianus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Trebellianus.jpg)
* In the ''Tyranni Triginta'', the author 'Trebellius Pollio' sets out to chronicle 'the 30 usurpers who arose in the years when the Empire was ruled by Gallienus and Valerian'. The number 30 is evidently modelled on the notorious '
Thirty Tyrants' who ruled Athens after the end of the Peloponnesian War. The chapter contains 32 mini-biographies. They include two women, six youths, and seven men who never claimed the imperial power; one usurper of the reign of
Maximinus Thrax
Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" ("the Thracian"; – 238) was Roman emperor from 235 to 238.
His father was an accountant in the governor's office and sprang from ancestors who were Carpi (a Dacian tribe), a people whom Diocletian ...
, one of the time of Decius, and two of the time of Aurelian; and a number who are not historical personages:
Postumus the Younger
In the '' Historia Augusta'', Postumus the Younger () figures as one of the so-called Thirty Tyrants who usurped power against the Roman Emperor Gallienus.
According to the pseudo-historical list of 'Thirty Tyrants', the Emperor of the Gallic ...
,
Saturninus Saturninus may refer to:
* Lucius Appuleius Saturninus (died 100 BC), tribune, legislator
* Gaius Sentius Saturninus, consul 19 BC, military officer, governor
* Marcus Aponius Saturninus (1st century AD), governor of Moesia, and partisan of first ...
,
Trebellianus
Trebellianus (d. 260–268) was a Roman usurper listed among the thirty tyrants in the '' Historia Augusta''. Modern historians consider this figure a character invented by the author of ''Historia'', whose traditional name was Trebellius Pollio. ...
,
Celsus
Celsus (; grc-x-hellen, Κέλσος, ''Kélsos''; ) was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. His literary work, ''The True Word'' (also ''Account'', ''Doctrine'' or ''Discourse''; Greek: grc-x-hellen, Λόγ ...
,
Titus
Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September 81 AD) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death.
Before becoming emperor, Titus gained renown as a mili ...
,
Censorinus
Censorinus was a Roman grammarian and miscellaneous writer from the 3rd century AD.
Biography
He was the author of a lost work ''De Accentibus'' and of an extant treatise ''De Die Natali'', written in 238, and dedicated to his patron Quintus ...
, and
Victorinus Junior
Victorinus Junior (supposedly died 271) was a fictional usurper who was claimed to have risen up against the Roman Emperor Aurelian, according to the ''Historia Augusta''. He is included in the list of the Thirty Tyrants.
According to the often ...
.
* In the ''Life of Tacitus'', the emperor is acclaimed by the Senate, meeting in the ''Curia Pompiliana'', which never existed. The ''History'' then lists a number of individuals, all of whom are invented by the author: the consul 'Velius Cornificius Gordianus', 'Maecius Faltonius Nicomachus', the
Prefect of the City 'Aelius Cesettianus', and the Praetorian Prefect 'Moesius Gallicanus'. Private letters commending Tacitus are quoted from the senators 'Autronius Tiberianus' and 'Claudius Sapilianus', both of whom are assumed to be non-historical personages. Most of the 'Maecii' and 'Gallicani' in the ''History'' are believed to be inventions of the author.
* In the ''Quadrigae Tyrannorum'' (''Four tyrants: The Lives of Firmus, Saturninus, Proculus and Bonosus''), the author includes
Firmus
According to the ''Historia Augusta'', Firmus (died 273) was a usurper during the reign of Aurelian. The contradictory accounts of his life and the man himself are considered to be a complete fabrication, perhaps based on the later Firmus.
Hist ...
, said to have been a usurper in Egypt under Aurelian. There is no certainty that this person ever existed; however, there was a ''
Corrector
A corrector (English plural ''correctors'', Latin plural ''correctores'') is a person or object practicing correction, usually by removing or rectifying errors.
The word is originally a Roman title, ''corrector'', derived from the Latin verb ''c ...
'' named Claudius Firmus stationed in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
in 274, about the time
Zosimus Zosimus, Zosimos, Zosima or Zosimas may refer to:
People
*
* Rufus and Zosimus (died 107), Christian saints
* Zosimus (martyr) (died 110), Christian martyr who was executed in Umbria, Italy
* Zosimos of Panopolis, also known as ''Zosimus Alchem ...
states that Aurelian was dealing with some trouble in that province. Nevertheless, the ''History's'' wealth of detail about him is considered to be completely invented. For example, he would eat an ostrich a day, he had a carriage drawn by ostriches, he would swim among crocodiles, he built himself a house fitted with square panels of glass.
* In the ''Life of Probus'', the author 'Flavius Vopiscus of Syracuse' states that the Emperor's descendants (''posteri'') fled from Rome and settled near
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
. There a statue of Probus was struck by lightning, a portent according to soothsayers 'that future generations of the family would rise to such distinction in the senate they all would hold the highest posts', though Vopiscus (supposedly writing under Constantine) says this prophecy has not yet come to pass. This is one of the strongest indications of the ''History's'' late 4th-century date, as it seems to be a fairly transparent allusion to the rich and powerful senator
Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus
Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus ( 358–390) was a leading Roman aristocrat of the later 4th century AD, renowned for his wealth, power and social connections. The son of the consul Petronius Probinus, he married Anicia Faltonia Proba and h ...
(consul in 371) whose two sons held the consulship together in 395. Petronius Probus was born in Verona.
Marius Maximus or 'Ignotus'?
Certain scholars have always defended the value of specific parts of the work.
Anthony Birley
Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist and academic. He was the son of Margaret Isabel (Goodlet) and historian and archaeologist Eric Birley.
Early life and education
Anthony ...
, for instance, has argued that the lives up to Septimius Severus are based on the now-lost biographies of Marius Maximus, which were written as a sequel to Suetonius' ''
Lives of the Twelve Caesars
''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The g ...
''. As a result, his translation of the ''History'' for
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...]
and not an imperial biographer at all. His argument rests on the point that, outside of the mentions in the ''History'', the only extant referencing of Marius' work is always in the context of Juvenal, and that the ''History's'' description of him as a historian cannot be taken at face value, given how it invents or distorts so many other citations. This theory is rejected by historians such as Anthony Birley and David Rohrbacher.
Literary value
The ''Historia Augusta'' has been described by Ronald Syme as "the most enigmatic work that Antiquity has transmitted". Although much of the focus of study throughout the centuries has been on the historical content, since the 20th century there has also been an assessment of the literary value of the work. For much of that time the assessment has been critical, as demonstrated by the analysis put forward by David Magie:
The literary, as well as the historical, value of the ''Historia Augusta'' has suffered greatly as a result of the method of its composition. In the arrangement in categories of the historical material, the authors did but follow the accepted principles of the art of biography as practised in antiquity, but their narratives, consisting often of mere excerpts arranged without regard to connexion or transition, lack grace and even cohesion. The over-emphasis of personal details and the introduction of anecdotal material destroy the proportion of many sections, and the insertion of forged documents interrupts the course of the narrative, without adding anything of historical value or even of general interest. Finally, the later addition of lengthy passages and brief notes, frequently in paragraphs with the general content of which they have no connexion, has put the crowning touch to the awkwardness and incoherence of the whole, with the result that the oft-repeated charge seems almost justified, that these biographies are little more than literary monstrosities.
M. L. W. Laistner was of the opinion that "even if the ''Historia Augusta'' was propaganda disguised as biography, it is still a wretched piece of literature", while Ronald Syme noted that with respect to the author's Latin prose:
He was not an elegant exponent. His normal language is flat and monotonous. But uneven, and significantly so. For this author is erudite, a fancier of words, and a collector. Hence many rarities, or even inventions ... first, when depicting the measures of a military disciplinarian, he brings in technical terms redolent of the camp. Second, archaism, preciosity, and flowery words.
Further, the work shows evidence of its having been put together in a very haphazard and hasty fashion, with little to no subsequent editing of the material to form a cohesive narrative. Birley sees an example of the carelessness with which the author approached the work in the construction of Marcus Aurelius' biography, where midway through the ''Life of Marcus Aurelius'' the author found himself in a muddle, probably because he had historical material in excess of what he required, and also because he had already used up much of his source to write separate biographies of Lucius Verus and Avidius Cassius, whose lives intersected with Marcus'. The answer he came up with was to use Eutropius as his source for a brief overview of Marcus' principate following the death of Lucius Verus. However, he found that in doing so, the narrative's ending was too abrupt and so, after including some gossip about Commodus not being his son, he once again began an account of Marcus' reign after the death of Verus.
Although these criticisms still form the prevailing view on the ''History's'' literary worth, modern scholars such as Rohrbacher have begun to argue that, while it is poorly written and not a stylistic or polished work, its use of allusion as a vehicle for parodying popular late 4th century biographical and historiographical works means that the very features which were once a cause for intense criticism (such as the inclusion of irrelevant or contradictory inventions alongside traditionally sourced material) are actually an intentional and integral part of the work, making it one of the most unique pieces of literature to emerge from the ancient world.
See also
*
Thirty Tyrants (Roman)
The Thirty Tyrants (Latin: ''Tyranni Triginta'') were a series of thirty rulers who appear in the ''Historia Augusta'' as having ostensibly been pretenders to the throne of the Roman Empire during the reign of the emperor Gallienus.
Given the noto ...
– about the ''Tyranni Triginta'', one of the books of the ''Historia Augusta''
*
Titus Aurelius Fulvus
* ''
Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte
The ('Enmann's History of the Emperors') is a modern term for a hypothesized Latin historical work, written in the 4th century but now lost.
The German scholar Alexander Enmann made in 1884 a comparison of several late Roman historical works and ...
''
Footnotes
References
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External links
Latin text and English translation at LacusCurtius*
ttp://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sha.html Latin textat
The Latin Library
The Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. It is run by William L. Carey, adjunct professor of Latin and Roman Law at George Mason University. The texts have been drawn from different sources, are not intended for rese ...
Livius.org: Introduction
{{Authority control
Crisis of the Third Century
Latin biographies
Latin prose texts
Roman-era biographers
Roman historiography
4th-century history books
Forgery controversies
Literary forgeries
4th-century Latin books