The Historia Augusta (English: Augustan History) is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the similar work of Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, 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 and Constantine I and addressed to those emperors or other important personages in Ancient Rome. 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.[1]

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 and Ammianus Marcellinus, in a complex allegorical game.[2] 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.[3]

Title and scope

The name Historia Augusta originated with Isaac Casaubon, who produced a critical edition in 1603, working from a complex manuscript tradition with a number of variant versions.[4] 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").[4]

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 in 485.[5] Lengthy citations from it are found in authors of the 6th and 9th centuries, including Sedulius Scottus 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.[6] The six Scriptores – "Aelius Spartianus", "Julius Capitolinus", "Vulcacius Gallicanus", "Aelius Lampridius", "Trebellius Pollio", and "Flavius Vopiscus (of Syracuse)" – dedicate their biographies to Diocletian, Constantine 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 to Gordian III, while the final two are attached to the lives from Valerian to Numerian.

The biographies cover the emperors from Hadrian to Carinus and Numerian. A section covering the reigns of Philip the Arab, Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, Aemilian and all but the end of the reign of Valerian is missing in all the manuscripts,[7] and it has been argued that biographies of Nerva and Trajan have also been lost[7] at the beginning of the work, which may suggest the compilation might have been a direct continuation of Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars. 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.[8]

Despite devoting whole books to ephemeral or in some cases non-existent usurpers,[9][10] there are no independent biographies of the factual, but short reigns of Emperors Quintillus and Florian, whose reigns are merely briefly noted towards the end of the biographies of their respective predecessors, Claudius Gothicus and Tacitus. 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 used it extensively in the first volume of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.[11] 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."[12]

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 in Caroline minuscule. 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.[13] P is also distinguished by a succession of six centuries of editorial corrections, beginning with the original scribe, and includes such worthies as Petrarch and Poggio Bracciolini; none of these editors betray any knowledge of any other witness.[14]

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.[15]

Three different sets of excerpts, one of which Theodor Mommsen suggested was possibly the work of Sedulius Scottus. How any are related to P is unclear.[16]

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).[14]

A copy of the Codex Palatinus (possibly the one made for Petrarch in 1356) was the basis of the editio princeps of the History, published in Milan in 1475. A subsequent printed version (the Aldine edition) was published at Venice in 1516, and this was followed closely by an edition edited by Desiderius Erasmus, and published by Johann Froben in Basel in 1518.[17]

Debates on dating

Hermann Dessau, whose groundbreaking work on the Historia Augusta led to its critical re-evaluation in the 20th century

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.[note 1][18][19] 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.[20] Then, in 1889, Hermann Dessau, who had become increasingly concerned by the large number of anachronistic terms, Vulgar Latin vocabulary, and especially the host of obviously false proper names in the work, proposed that the six authors were all fictitious personae, and that the work was in fact composed by a single author in the late 4th century, probably in the reign of Theodosius I.[21][22] Among his supporting evidence was that the life of Septimius Severus appeared to have made use of a passage from the mid-4th-century historian Aurelius Victor,[note 2] and that the life of Marcus Aurelius likewise uses material from Eutropius.[note 3][23]

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 postulated a Theodosian 'editor' of the Scriptores' work, an idea that has resurfaced many times since.[24] Hermann Peter (editor of the Historia Augusta and of the Historicorum Romanorum reliquiae) proposed a date of 330 for when the work was written, based upon an analysis of style and language.[25] Others, such as Norman H. Baynes, abandoned the early 4th-century date but only advanced it as far as the reign of Julian the Apostate (useful for arguing the work was intended as pagan propaganda).[26]

In the 1960s and 1970s however Dessau's original arguments received powerful restatement and expansion from Sir Ronald Syme, 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,[27] and most scholars now accept the theory of a single author of unknown identity, writing after 395.[28] Although it was believed that the Historia Augusta did not reference any material from Ammianus Marcellinus' history, which was finished before 391 and which covered the same period,[29] this has now been shown not to be the case, and that the Historia Augusta does in fact make reference to Ammianus' history.[30]

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[31][32][33] and A. H. M. Jones[34] 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.[32][33]

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 (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 (consul in 322).[35] 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 or Julian.[36]

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 on behalf of the senatorial aristocracy who had supported the usurper.[37] 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.[38]

Authorship debate

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:[39]

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 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.[40]

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)[note 4][41] 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'.[41] 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.[20]

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.[note 5][42] 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 scriptor's life over another's.[42]

However, the presence of a post-Constantinian editor, as originally postulated by Theodor Mommsen, 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.[43] 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.[43]

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.[42] 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 Diadumenianus "Diadumenus".[42] 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.[42] 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.[42] Finally, each of the six scriptores authored fictional lives for some of their biographies, all of them using fake sources, documents and acclamations.[44]

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.[45] The names Trebellius Pollio and Flavius Vopiscus are sourced in various ways from Cicero's writings,[46] as is the name Capitolinus.[47] 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.[47] 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.[48]

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-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."[49]

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.[50] Thus among the biographies of 2nd-century and early 3rd-century figures are included Hadrian's heir Aelius Caesar, and the usurpers Avidius Cassius, Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus, Caracalla's brother Geta and Macrinus' 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, which Mommsen thought 'secondary', is however rich in apparently reliable information and has been vindicated by Syme as belonging to the 'primary' series.[51]

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.[52] 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. Moreover, after the biography of Caracalla 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.[53]

The biography of Macrinus is notoriously unreliable,[54] and after a partial reversion to reliability in the Life of Elagabalus, the Alexander Severus, 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.[55] 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 up to 238, and probably Dexippus in the later books, for the entire imperial period the Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte as well as Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Ammianus Marcellinus and Jerome – but the biographies are increasingly tracts of invention in which occasional nuggets of fact are embedded.[56][30]

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 had considered banning male prostitution but had decided against making it illegal, although the author added that the emperor Philip did later ban the practice.[57] 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.[58] 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.[