Historia Augusta

Historia Augusta name given by the Swiss scholar Casaubon in the early seventeenth century to a collection of biographies of Roman emperors, and certain heirs and claimants to the empire, from Hadrian to Numerianus (AD 117–284); there is a gap between 244 and 259. The biographies are attributed to six authors: Aelius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Volcatius Gallicanus, Aelius Lampridius, Trebellius Pollio, and Flavius Vopiscus. Nothing is known of the authors. Of the Lives by the first four, some are addressed to Diocletian, some to Constantine the Great, and it was long assumed that they were written in the reigns of these emperors in the early fourth century. However, study of the style has led some to believe that the collection is the work of only one author, perhaps writing at the very end of the fourth century; the author's purpose in compiling this forgery has been variously described, as intended to entertain readers with sensational stories or even as a veiled pagan attack on Christianity. To others it still seems to be the work of more than one hand. It is clear that the documents cited in the Historia are mostly forgeries, and the historical value of the narrative is doubtful.