Historia Augusta, Volume I 0674991540, 9780674991545

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I I 1 i i i i i i i I

LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY

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SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE

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AUGUSTAE I

I I I 1 I I I i I I i 1 I i

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Translated by

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DAVID MAGIE

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of Loeb titles can be found at the end of each volume Complete

list

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SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE AUGUSTAE (Historia Augusta)

A

collection of bio-

graphies (most of them in chronological order) of Roman emperors and claimants

and heirs presumptive and colleagues from Hadrian to Numerianus (A.D. 117284) compiled by six writers (learned men, possibly secretaries or librarians

with

much knowledge

of law) apparently of the period A.D. 285-335. Their names

may be

fictitious,

and their work seems to

have been added to by later interpolations. Their model is Suetonius, their style plain, their attitude uncritical and courtly but honest, their method the anecdote without care for arrangement or much regard

importance or the background of general events. Their considerable historical value depends on their sources. The earlier lives rely on two undistinguished authors and possibly a third for the

much better historian the more on public records, ;

later are based a

fact

which

enhances their value, in spite of strong evidence of forgery. The object of the

whole strange collection has been much discussed in recent times.

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NY PUBLIC

923. 137 S Au g u sta n h stor i

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB EDITED BY G.

P.

GOOLD

PREVIOUS EDITORS

PAGE W. H. D. ROUSE T. E.

E. H.

E. L.

CAPPS A. POST

WARMINGTON

THE SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE AUGUSTAE

LCL

139

THE SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE

AUGUSTAE WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY

DAVID MAGIE VOLUME

I

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS LONDON, ENGLAND

First published 1921

Reprinted 1930, 1953, 1960, 1967, 1979, 1991

ISBN 0-674-99154-0

Printed in Great Britain by St

Edmundsbury

Press Ltd,

Edmunds, Suffolk, on acid-free paper. Bound by Hunter 6- Foulis Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland. Bury

St

CONTENTS PREFACE

INTRODUCTION EDITORIAL NOTE (1991)

HADRIAN AELIUS

vii

xi

xxxviii

3

83

ANTONINUS PIUS

101

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS LUCIUS VERUS

133

207

AVIDIUS CASSIUS

233

COMMODUS

265

PERTINAX

315

DIDIUS JULIANUS SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS

349

PESCENNIUS NIGER

431

CLODIUS ALBINUS

461

371

PREFACE IN the preparation of this book others have laboured and I have entered into the fruits of their labours. Their co-operation has been of inestimable service. The translation of the biographies from Antoninus Pius to Pescennius Niger and from the Maximini to Maximus and Balbinus inclusive has been furnished In the by my friend Mr. Ainsworth O'Brien- Moore. translation of the other lives also his fine taste and literary discrimination have been responsible for many a happy phrase. But for the promise of his collaboration the task of preparing this edition had not been undertaken. The Latin text of the first six biographies has been supplied by Miss Susan H. Ballou of Bryn Mawr College, who had in mind the preparation of a new text of these biographies, based on her study of the manuscripts. Unfortunately, however, other interests have claimed her time and her efforts and she has been unable to complete the work for this edition. It is to be earnestly hoped that she will yet publish a critical text of the entire series. In the lack of Miss Ballou's text I nave been forced to base this edition, from the Commodus Vll

PREFACE onward, on the text of Hermann Peter, for the longpromised edition by Dr. Ernst Hohl has not yet have been invaluable. Its aid would appeared. aware of the inadequacies of well While only too Peter's text, I have not felt able to introduce many The suggestions offered bv various scholars changes. O since the appearance of Peter's second edition have been carefully considered, and a few have been The text, therefore, is that of the Codex adopted. Palatinus (P), with the introduction of a few emendations and whatever changes in punctuation and spelling might seem in accordance with modern All the more important variations from P, usage. as well as the most significant of the variant readings O of the correctors the later afforded by manuscript, from the text of the in ad'ditiou, and, divergencies Peter have been entered in the critical notes. In the Introduction I have sought to give a brief account of the Historia Augusta, the authors, their method and style, and a summary of the study expended on it from the close of the classical period to the present and its use by later historians. A dis-

v

*

cussion of its authorship an.l sources and of the theories which have found in it a work of the late fourth or early fifth century has, for reasons of space, been reserved for the second volume. The somewhat voluminous commentary has seemed necessary on account of the obscurity of the narrative and the abundance of technical terms. In the preparation of it I have tried to keep in mind not only the needs of the general reader but also those of the student of Roman History, and it is for the benefit of the latter that some of the more technical material has been included. vin

PREFACE

A

list

of the books and articles to which

I

am

in-

debted would fill many pages. The greatest amount of aid has been furnished by Lessing's Lexicon,

Mommsen's Romisches

Staatsrecht, the Prosopographia the admirable articles on the

Imperil Romani, and various Emperors that have appeared in the

Real-

In the comEncyclopadie of Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll. mentary to the biography of Hadrian valuable assistance has been rendered by Wilhelm Weber's Untersuchwigen zur Geschickte des Kaisers Hadrian. A complete bibliography will be included in the second volume. Of the work as a whole, perhaps it can be said "Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura, :

quae

legis hie ".

PRINCETON,

NEW

DAVID MAGIE. JERSEY,

15th June, 1921.

IX

INTRODUCTION THE

SCOPE AND LITERARY CHARACTER

OF THE

HISTORIA AUGUSTA the remnants of Roman literature preserved of biographies by the whims of fortune is a collection the Vitae of the emperors from Hadrian to Carinus Diversorum Principum et Tyrannorum a Divo Hadriano

AMONG

usque ad

Numerianum Diversis

compositae, as

titled in the principal manuscript, the

it

is

en-

Codex Palatinus

It is popularly known, apof the Vatican Library. the Hutoria Augusta, parently for convenience' sake, as a name applied to it by Casaubon, whereas the original 1 title was probably de Vita Caesarum or Vitae Caesarum.

The

collection, as extant, comprises thirty biographies, most of which contain the life of a single emperor, while some include a group of two or more, classed

were either together merely because these emperors Not only the emperors who akin or contemporary. " Augusti," but also the heirs actually reigned, the Mommsen, Hermes, Schriften,

vii. p.

ziii. (1878), p.

301

=

Gesammelte

301.

xi

INTRODUCTION " presumptive, the Caesares/' and the various claimants to the empire, the