Ancient Greek & Roman
Scriptores Historiae Augustae
The Historia Augusta is a collection of Latin biographies of Roman emperors, heirs and usurpers, running from Hadrian to Numerian (AD 117 to 284). The manuscripts ascribe the Lives to six authors, Aelius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Vulcacius Gallicanus, Aelius Lampridius, Trebellius Pollio and Flavius Vopiscus, who profess to be writing under Diocletian and Constantine. Most scholars now doubt that these men existed, and many think the whole collection was composed in the late fourth century, perhaps by a single author.
Its value and its unreliability are the same thing. For the third century it is the only continuous Latin narrative, and it preserves anecdote, speeches and documents found nowhere else; but the Lives grow steadily less trustworthy, and many of the letters, decrees and authorities it cites are invented. This archive carries the Lives from Caracalla to Maximus and Balbinus, in the second volume of David Magie's Loeb translation (1924).
Major Works (9)
- Antoninus Caracalla — translated by David Magie (1924)
- Antoninus Diadumenianus — translated by David Magie (1924)
- Antoninus Elagabalus — translated by David Magie (1924)
- Antoninus Geta — translated by David Magie (1924)
- The Three Gordians — translated by David Magie (1924)
- Opellius Macrinus — translated by David Magie (1924)
- The Two Maximini — translated by David Magie (1924)
- Maximus and Balbinus — translated by David Magie (1924)
- Severus Alexander — translated by David Magie (1924)