Historia Augusta

“The Historia Augusta is without question or rival the most enigmatic work that Antiquity has transmitted.”

Sir Ronald Syme ‘The Historia Augusta: a call of clarity’ (1971)

In 1603, French classical scholar Isaac Casaubon gave the name HISTORIA AUGUSTA to a collection of Latin ‘Lives’ of 2nd and 3rd century Roman emperors, heirs and usurpers. The work begins with Hadrian (117–138) – though this may well have originally been preceded by biographies of Nerva and Trajan (picking up from where Suetonius left off) – and ends with Carus, Numerian & Carinus (282–285). There is a lacuna where the ‘Lives’ of Philip the Arab, Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, Aemilian and the greater part of Valerian's ‘Life’ ought to be (the period 244–260).

Subject	Author
Hadrian	Aelius Spartianus
Lucius Aelius	Aelius Spartianus
Antoninus Pius	Julius Capitolinus
Marcus Aurelius	Julius Capitolinus
Lucius Verus	Julius Capitolinus
Avidius Cassius	Vulcatius Gallicanus
Commodus	Aelius Lampridius
Pertinax	Julius Capitolinus
Didius Julianus	Julius Capitolinus
Septimius Severus	Aelius Spartianus
Pescennius Niger	Aelius Spartianus
Clodius Albinus	Julius Capitolinus
Caracalla	Aelius Spartianus
Geta	Aelius Spartianus
Macrinus	Julius Capitolinus
Diadumenianus	Aelius Lampridius
Elagabalus	Aelius Lampridius
Alexander Severus	Aelius Lampridius
Maximinus Thrax	Julius Capitolinus
Gordian I, II & III	Julius Capitolinus
Pupienus & Balbinus	Julius Capitolinus
Lacuna
Valerian	Trebellius Pollio
Gallienus	Trebellius Pollio
Thirty pretenders	Trebellius Pollio
Claudius Gothicus	Trebellius Pollio
Aurelian	Flavius Vopiscus
Tacitus	Flavius Vopiscus
Probus	Flavius Vopiscus
Four pretenders	Flavius Vopiscus
Carus, Carinus & Numerian	Flavius Vopiscus

The biographies purport to have been written during the early-4th century (at various times, pre-305 to post-324), by six, otherwise unknown, authors (the Scriptores Historiae Augustae) who address remarks to the emperors Diocletian and Constantine. The last of these scriptores, Flavius Vopiscus of Syracuse, also refers to three of the previous authors (none of the others acknowledge their colleagues).

The debate continues, but the generally held belief is that the ‘Historia Augusta’ was written in the late-4th century, and that it is the work of just one author.* For what purpose it was written, though, is the subject of further debate. Replete with dubious personages and bogus documents, it appears to be an enormous prank* – a whimsical blend of fact and fiction* that has to be treated with caution.* Indeed, Flavius Vospiscus mischievously reports a discussion about his predecessor, Trebellius Pollio, between himself and one Junius Tiberianus:

“... Tiberianus asserted that much of Pollio's work was too careless and much was too brief; but when I said in reply that there was no writer, at least in the realm of history, who had not made some false statement, and even pointed out the places in which Livy and Sallust, Cornelius Tacitus, and, finally, Trogus could be refuted by manifest proofs, he came over wholly to my opinion, and, throwing up his hands, he jestingly said besides: “Well then, write as you will. You will be safe in saying whatever you wish, since you will have as comrades in falsehood those authors whom we admire for the style of their histories.” ”

‘Historia Augusta’ The Deified Aurelian Chapter 2

Nevertheless, the early major biographies – those of the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Septimius Severus and Caracalla – are considered to be reasonably well based in fact*. The ‘Life’ of Elagabalus (called Heliogabalus by Aelius Lampridius) sets off in similar vein, but about halfway through turns into a work of fiction. The rest are predominantly figments of the anonymous writer's imagination.

Using computer analysis, Penelope J. Gurney and Lyman W. Gurney believe they have shown that the ‘Historia Augusta’ is the work of more than one author:

“This paper describes the completion of our demonstration that a primary source of historical knowledge of the Roman empire of the second and third centuries of our era - the Scriptores Historiae Augustae - is probably the product of a number of authors, perhaps six as the manuscript tradition claims, rather than that of a single author, as most scholarship of the past century has attempted to prove. This demonstration is based upon the results of a stylometric analysis of a fully lemmatized and disambiguated text of the SHA.”

‘The Scriptores Historiae Augustae: A Demonstration of Multiple Authorship’ (1998)

“Today most scholars accept that the work is a piece of deliberate mystification, written much later than its purported date, though the fundamentalist position still has distinguished support.”

Robert Browning ‘Cambridge History of Classical Literature’ (1982)

“... no good contemporary narrative survives for the critical middle fifty years of the third century, so that we must depend on the often fanciful and trivializing Historia Augusta, which reads rather like a gossip column in a tabloid newspaper, and once read is hard to forget.”

Averil Cameron ‘The Later Roman Empire’ (1993)

“The change in opinion over the past century, from viewing the HA as a quagmire to considering it a treasure trove of intriguing information about later Roman cultural sensibilities, is welcome. But as a historical source, this work must always be approached with caution. Indeed, one cannot escape the feeling that even if the author(s) did not intend it as a joke, the HA has nonetheless amounted to one played on posterity.”

Gavin A. Sundwall ‘Encyclopedia of Historians & Historical Writing’ (1999)

“... and contain a great deal of authentic information, much of it not provided by any other literary sources but confirmed by epigraphic evidence.”

Anthony Birley ‘Lives of the Later Caesars’ (1976)