Historia Augusta

Despite a century of intensive scholarly interest, the nature and purpose of the Historia August remain elusive. It is, however, an essential text for historians of the ancient world because it is the most detailed Latin source for the second and third centuries AD, and it often provides details beyond what we find in the Greek sources. In addition, it offers pleasure for the casual reader from its gossipy recounting of the passions, follies, and scandals of decadent emperors, and the noble and admirable deeds of the good ones. The work comes to us as a collection of thirty books which cover the lives of the Roman emperors from Hadrian (ruled 117-138) to Carinus (283-285). The lives roughly follow the model of the imperial biographer Suetonius. They offer not only a historical narrative of the important deeds of the subject's life, but also evidence of the emperor's character as revealed through habits or anecdotes. The author follows other imperial biographers like Plutarch in differentiating biographyfrom history. Biography is traditionally more concerned with facts and accuracy, and less concerned with style and elegance--