The Original Title of the Historia AugustaAuthor(s): Mark ThomsonSource: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 56, H. 1 (2007), pp. 121-125Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25598380 .

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THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF THE HISTORIA AUGUSTA

This note examines the various titles traditionally ascribed to the Historia Augusta (hereafter the HA), a collection of thirty imperial biographies, written and compiled from earlier sources by a single author

in the last decade of the fourth century.1 The modern titles Historia Augusta and Scriptores Historiae

Augustae are purely conventional and find no support in the text or tradition. The invention of the phrase

Scriptores Historiae Augustae is sometimes attributed to Casaubon, the great humanist, whose influential

early edition appeared under this title, perhaps following a description of the historian Tacitus as "the

author of an Augustan history" in the life of his supposed ancestor, the Emperor Tacitus.2 Similar titles,

however, had been current at an earlier date. Sylburg's Frankfurt edition of a corpus of lesser historians,

including the HA, had appeared in 1588 under the title Historiae Augustae scriptores latini minores?

According to Manitius, the catalogues of the libraries of Pope Calixtus III (1455) and Pope Sixtus IV

(1471) employed the title Historia Augustorum principum for the HA itself.4 The title Historia Augusta

represents a modern compromise, the word scriptores discreetly abandoned after Dessau's theory of

single authorship gained general acceptance. The word scriptor sometimes persists in the scholarship on

the subject as a convenient label for the six pseudonyms that this single author assumed: Aelius Spar tianus, Iulius Capitolinus, Vulcacius Gallicanus (v.c), Aelius Lampridius, Trebellius Pollio and Flavius

Vopiscus Syracusius. The HA appears under three titles in the extant manuscripts: (i) Vitae diuersorum principum et tyr

annorum a diuo Hadriano usque ad Numerianum diuersis conpo sitae; (ii) de Vita Caesar um; and (iii) Gesta Romanorum imperatorum. The first of these titles occurs in the index and in the closing sentence

(or explicit) of the life of Carinus in the Codex Palatinus no. 899 (P), which is generally recognised as the most authoritative of the extant manuscripts. The second title occurs in two ninth-century collections of

excerpts, which draw upon a lost manuscript in some respects superior to P, the Collectaneum of Sedulius

Scottus and the so-called Palatine excerpts.5 This title also appears in a catalogue of the library of the ab

bey at Murbach, compiled around 840.6 The third title occurs with some variations in the so-called ? class

of manuscripts, which may go back to a pristine source of the tradition, but are themselves of humanistic

date.7 We can safely ignore this last version, as a humanistic accretion to the tradition.

1 The reader may wish to consult the following authorities for an overview of the problems of au

thorship, date and authenticity: Andre Chastagnol, Histoire Auguste: les empereurs romains des He et Hie siecles (Paris, 1994); Ronald Syme, Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (Oxford, 1968); Hermann Dessau, 'Ueber die Scriptores Historiae Augustae,' Hermes 27 (1892), 561-605; Idem, 'Uber Zeit und Personlichkeit der Scriptores Historiae Augustae,' Hermes 24 (1889), 337-392. I cite the Teubner edition: Ernst Hohl, ed. Scriptores Historiae Augustae, 2 vols., Teubner (Leipzig, 1965; first ed. 1927). Editions and translations of various books have appeared in the Bude series:

Oliviers Desbordes and Stephane Ratti, eds. trans, comm. Vies des deux Valeriens et des deux Gal

liens, Histoire Auguste 4.2 (Paris, 2000); Francois Paschoud, ed. trans, comm. Vie d'Aurelien et de

Tacite, Histoire Auguste 5.1, Bude (Paris, 1996); Id., Vies de Probus, Quatre tyrans, Carus, Numerien et Carin, Histoire Auguste 5.2, Bude (Paris, 2002); Robert Turcan, ed. trans, comm. Vies de Macrin,

Diadumenien, Heliogabale, Histoire Auguste 3.1, Bude (Paris, 1993); Jean Pierre Callu, ed. trans, comm. Vie d'Hadrien, Aelius, Antonin, Histoire Auguste 1.1 (Paris, 1992).

2 Tac. 10.3; A 2.2; Pr. 2.7. Hohl, ed. SHA, v, n.l: haud scio an parum apte mutuatus esse uideatur, dum respicias, quantum discrepet harum uitarum genus ab illius annalibus.

3 Historiae Augustae scriptores Latini minores, ed. Frederick Sylburg (Frankfurt, 1588). This work includes Suetonius and other historical authors alongside the HA.

4 Max Manitius, Handschriften antiker Autoren in mittelalterlichen Bibliothekskatalogen, Zentralblatt fiir Bibliothekswesen Bhft. 67 (Leipzig, 1935), 92 (162). A similar title also appears in some late

manuscripts of Tacitus.

5 The ninth-century Palatine excerpts, the Vaticanus Palatinus latinus 886, appear under the title ex

libro spartiani de uita caesarum.

6 Manitius, Handschriften, 92 (161): Vita cesaru(m) u(e)l tira(n)norum ab helio Adriano us(que) ad

Car(u)m Carinu(m) libri VII.

1 Laurentius Sanctae Crucis 20 sin. 6 (D) contains the title gesta romanorum imperatorum et eorum

qui tenuerunt seu inuaserunt rem publicam conscripta a diuersis auctoribus ab adriano usque

Historia, Band 56/1 (2007) ? Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart

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122 Mark Thomson

It seems that none of the titles found in the manuscripts are wholly accurate. Mommsen argued per

suasively for the title de Vita Caesar um, on the grounds that it appeared in two collections of excerpts,

good witnesses to the earliest stages of the manuscript tradition.8 Callu drew attention to an entry in the

Murbach catalogue, which must refer to a lost manuscript of the HA, an early representative of the class

of manuscripts to which P belonged.9 He also noted the similarity between this title and the titles of

Suetonius' de Vita Caesarum and Aurelius Victor's Caesares.10 Chastagnol brought forward a passage in

Jerome, who cited the historical works of Tacitus using the periphrasis post Augustum usque ad mortem

Domitiani uitae Caesarum triginta uoluminibus.11 It would be very tempting indeed to draw an analogy between the HA, which in its present condition contains thirty books, and this composite edition of Tacitus'

Annates and Historiae, whose arrangement may be preserved in the second Medicean manuscript. There

is, however, little evidence that the author of the HA had read Tacitus, although he invoked the name of

the great historian on two occasions.12 Nor can one necessarily assume that the present arrangement of

the HA in thirty books, from which it appears that several lives are missing, was the fault of its author.

The title de Vita Caesarum has much to recommend it, but the arguments advanced by Mommsen, Callu and Chastagnol are open to strong objections. Mommsen's title finds no support in the text, and

indeed it would be inconsistent with the usage of the author of the HA. In almost every instance, the au

thor employed the word Caesar in the strict sense, that is, to describe a subordinate emperor.13 He almost never used the word to refer to senior emperors, except in a few cases where he sought to avoid verbal

repetition.14 The distinction between emperors, Caesars and usurpers (Augusti, Caesares, and tyranni) is

an important structural feature of the collection.

In my opinion, the title de Vita Caesarum was a product of the ninth century. In this period the works

of Suetonius and the HA may have circulated together. We find allusions to both Suetonius and the HA

in the life of Charlemagne, perhaps indicating that its author Einhard gained access to both works during his time at Fulda.15 Later in this century, Servatus Lupus wrote to Abbot Marcward of Priim in an effort

ad numerianum. Ambrosianus C 111 inf. (X) contains the title gesta romanorum imperatorum et

eorum qui caesares seu augusti simpliciter appellati sunt et tyrannorum qui romanorum imperium inuaserunt ab adriano usque ad numerianum. Chigianus H VII 239 (Ch) and Vaticanus Latinus

1898 (v) contain the title gesta romanorum principum seu imperatorum et rei publicae inuasorum

a diuo adriano usque ad numerianum augustum ab historiographis scripta diuersis. These titles do

not merit further consideration.

8 Theodor Mommsen, 'Zu den Scriptores Historiae Augustae,' Hermes 13 (1878), 298-301, 300

301.

9 Jean P. Callu, 'La premiere diffusion de l'Histoire Auguste (VIe-IXe s.),' BHAC 1982/1983 (1985),

89-129, 119.

10 Callu, BHAC 1982/1983 (1985), 124-129. 11 Hier. in Zach. 3, 14.1.2 [CSSL 76a 878.45]. 12 A 2.1; Tac. 10.3. For different views on the subject, see: Javier Velaza, 'Tacite dans VHistoire Auguste:

vers une revision,' HAC 5 (1997), 241-253; J. Schwartz, 'Elements suspects de la Vita Hadriani,' BHAC 1972/1974 (1976), 239-267, 242-244; Syme, Ammianus (as in n. 1), 189; Werner Hartke, Romische Kinderkaiser (Berlin, 1951), 401, n. 1.

13 Ael. 2.1 2.2 2.3; 2.6; MA 6.3; 7.5; 12.8; 16.1; 17.3; V 1.6; C 1.10; P 6.9; S 10.3; 14.3; 16.3; 16.4; CI. A 1.2; 2.1; 2.2; 3.3; 6.4; 10.3; 10.7; 13.4; 17.9; G 5.3; OM 4.1; 10.4; Hel. 5.1; 10.1; 13.1; 16.4; AS 1.2; 2.4; 8.1; 64.4; Max. 16.7; 20.2; 22.6; Gd. 22.2; 22.5; 30.5; MB 3.3; 8.3; Val. 8.1; Gall. 14.9; T 4.1; 6.3; 24.1; 25.1; A 10.2; Car. 9.3; 11.3. He imposes a restricted definition upon the word: Ael.

1.1; 2.2; OM 1.1.

14 H 16.3; A 42.3; C 19.1; DJ 8.8. The first case may show the usage of Marius Maximus and not the

author. The second involves a rhetorical antithesis. Cf. also F. Paschoud, Histoire Auguste 5.1, p. 198, n. 410.

15 Einhard seems to have acquired the rare word dicaculus from his reading of the life of Hadrian:

Ein. Vit. Karl. 25; H 20.8; TLL 5.957.80. Note also Iul. Pom. Vit. Cont. 3.6.5 (PL 56.482): ilia rudis

est, ilia dicacula, ilia deformis, ilia formosa. For Einhard's borrowings from Suetonius, see: Mat

thew Innes, 'The Classical Tradition in the Carolingian Renaissance: Ninth-Century Encounters

with Suetonius,' IJCT3 (1997), 265-282; W.S.M. Nicoll, 'Some Passages in Einhard's Vita Karoli

in relation to Suetonius,' Medium Aevum 44 (1975), 117-120; G.B. Townend, 'Suetonius and his

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The Original Title of the Historia Augusta \ 23

to obtain a manuscript from the library of Fulda, which he described in the following terms: "Suetonius

Tranquillus concerning the life of the Caesars (de Vita Caesarum), which among them is divided into

two books, not especially large."16 The copy of Suetonius held at Fulda was apparently in two volumes, and one might speculate that the second of these was in fact the HA, considered as a continuation. The

twelfth-century catalogue of the monastic library at Bamberg includes two consecutive entries, which

read: de uita Caesarum Romanorum I. item alius.11 Here Manitius commented: "sind der Bedeutung nach zweifelhaft, denn hier kann Sueton oder Aurelius Victor oder Hist. Augusta gemeint sein". One im

mediately thinks of the Codex Bambergensis of the HA, apparently copied at Fulda from P. Under these

circumstances, there is every chance that the HA acquired the title de Vita Caesarum by association with

the works of Suetonius during the Carolingian period. Furthermore, where the title Vita Caesarum occurs

in ninth-century authors, one cannot always determine to which work it alludes, so that an example in

Hincmar may or may not refer to Aurelius Victor.18 It seems, then, that the title de Vita Caesarum is a

figment of the Carolingian age, and so cannot have been the original title of the HA.

The title found in P presents special difficulties. It reads: Vitae diuersorum principum et tyrannorum a diuo Hadriano usque ad Numerianum diuersis compositae.19 The phrase uitae diuersorum principum et tyrannorum may be derived from the first sentence of the life of Macrinus: Vitae illorum principum seu tyrannorum siue Caesarum, qui non diu imperarunt, in obscuro latent?? The basic problem with

the title of P is that it assumes that the HA originally began with the life of Hadrian. This assumption is by no means sound, since the collection seems to lack lives of Nerva and Trajan, as well as a general

preface. The difficulties surrounding this title involve many other questions concerning the tradition of

the HA. This title appears only in the index and colophons of P, which seem to have been added to the

collection after many of the lives fell out of their chronological sequence. While it would be unwise to

open here questions about the original scope and arrangement of the HA, it may be that the title found

in P was added after the collection had suffered either from mechanical damage or from some species of editorial incompetence. In any case, it seems very unlikely that the HA originally appeared under the

title found in P.21

It seems then that we must look outside the manuscript tradition for the original title of the HA.

Hohl, who edited the text of the lives in the Teubner series, argued that the original title of the HA was

Influence,' in T.A. Dorey, Latin Biography. Studies in Latin Literature and its Influence (London,

1967), 98-106, 102-105; Louis Halphen ed. Einhard, x-xi; Idem, Etudes critiques sur Vhistoire de

Charlemagne (Paris, 1921), 91-95; Edward Kennard Rand, 'On the History of the De Vita Caesarum

of Suetonius in the Early Middle Ages,' HSCP 37 (1926), 1-48, 40^8. 16 Serv. Lup. Ep. 91 [MGH Ep. 6.81.20 = Becker, 26.13]: Quaeso praeterea, ut ad sanctum Bonifatium

sollertem aliquem monachum dirigatis, qui ex uestra parte Hattonem abbatem deposcat, ut uobis

SuetonfiumJ TrfanquillumJ de Vita Caesarum, qui apud eos in duos nee magnos codices diuisus

est, ad exscribendum dirigat; mihique eum aut ipsi, quod nimium opto, ajferatis aut si haec felicitas nostris dijferetur peccatis, per certissimum nuntium mittendum curetis. Lupus mentioned the works

of Suetonius in an earlier letter to Marcward, written in 840 or 841. Serv. Lup. Ep. 10.8 [MGH Ep. 6.21.8]: Quid super Suetonio Tranquillo et losepho a uobis fieri optem, demonstrabit Eigel, nostrarum

rerumfidus interpres. On the Fulda Suetonius, see: S.J. Tibbetts, 'Suetonius, de Vita Caesarum,' in

L.D. Reynolds, Texts and Transmission. A Survey of the Latin Classics (Oxford, 1983), 399^04, 400.

17 Becker, 80.209-210 = Manitius, 67A (143). Manitius placed this catalogue in the year 1120.

18 Hincmar cited an historical work under the title Vita Caesarum. Hinc. de Diuort. 6 [PL 125.758]: successisse etiam paterna quidam regnant, sicut de his omnibus in historiis et chronicis et etiam in

libro qui inscribitur Vita Caesarum, inuenitur. See J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, 'History in the Mind of

Archbishop Hincmar,' in R.H.C. Davis and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (eds.), The Writing of History in

the Middle Ages. Essays presented to Richard William Southern (Oxford, 1981), 43-70.

19 The last life in the series is that of Carinus and not Numerianus.

20 OM 1.1.

21 The title of the Palatine excerpts (ex libro spartiani de uita caesarum) seems to draw on the incipit to the life of Hadrian, which reads SPARTIANI DE VITA HADRIANI, perhaps suggesting that the

title found in P was not available to the author of the excerpts.

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124 Mark Thomson

de Vita Principum.22 Johne accepted this position and elaborated upon it in his Kaiserbiographie und

Senatsaristokratie and in his more recent article in Der Neue PaulyP The phrase de vita principum

appears twice in the extant lives. In a digression in the Tyranni Triginta, the author mentioned "those

books, which I published concerning the life of the emperors (de uita principum)."24 In the preface to

the life of Aurelian, Flavius Vopiscus described his encounter with the urban prefect, Iunius Tiberianus:

"There, now at leisure, freed from law-suits and public business, he engaged in much conversation from

the Palatine Hill to the Varian gardens, in which he spoke mostly about the lives of emperors (de uita

principum)."25 The phrase de uita principum occurs in an emphatic position: at the end of the first period of the preface, immediately after the introduction of the disputants.26

There are further allusions to the original title throughout the lives. The author disdained "all those

great stylists ... who wrote about the life of the emperors (in uita principum) and their times."27 He

praised the diligence of Trebellius Pollio "in publishing accounts of the good and bad emperors."28 The

Egyptian usurper Firmus merited inclusion in the series because he was an emperor and not a brigand, and the scholarly controversy with Fonteius, Arcontius, and the others takes on added significance as

an allusion to the title of the collection.29 The author avoided writing about the tetrarchs, "since no one

can speak of the life of living emperors (uiuorum principum uita) without incurring censure."30 There

are many similar examples scattered throughout the collection.31 The title proposed by Hohl and Johne

is also consistent with the usage of the author.32 The word princeps occurs frequently throughout the

lives.33 It can be used of Augusti, Caesares, and usurpers, and it can be used of Augusti as distinct from

22 Ernst Hohl, 'Reste einer Handschrift des Kollektaneums des Sedulius Scottus in Paris,' Rh. M. 69

(1914), 580-584, 582, n. 5. Hohl may have given a misleading impression when he entitled his

Teubner edition Vitae principum, combining the title of P with the title de Vita Principum found

throughout the text.

23 Klaus-Peter Johne, 'Historia Augusta,' in Der Neue Pauly (Stuttgart, 1998), 5.637-40, 637; Idem,

Kaiserbiographie und Senatsaristokratie: Untersuchungen zurDatierung und sozialen Herkunftder Historia Augusta, Schriften zur Geschichte und Kultur der Antike 15 (Berlin, 1976), 11-13.

24 T 33.8: hos libellos, quos de uita principum edidi.

25 A 1.2: ibi cum animus a causis atque a negotiis publicis solutus ac liber uacaret, sermonem multum

a Palatio usque ad hortos Varianos instituit et in eo praecipue de uita principum. 26 Compare Min. Fel. Oct. 1.5 [CSEL 2.4.1-5]: itaque cum per uniuersam conuictus nostri etfamiliari

tatis aetatem mea cogitatio uolueretur, in illo praecipue sermone eius mentis meae resedit imperio,

quo Caecilium superstitionis uanitatibus etiamnunc inhaerentem disputatione grauissima ad ueram

religionem reformauit. Nep. Praef. 8: Sedhic plura persequi cum magnitudo uoluminis prohibet turn

festinatio, ut ea explicem, quae exorsus sum. quare ad propositum ueniemus et in hoc exponemus libro de uita excellentium imperatorum.

27 Pr. 2.7: et mihi quidem id animi fuit, non Sallustios, Liuios, Tacitos, Trogos atque omnes disertis

simos imitarer uiros in uita principum et temporibus disserendis, sed Marium Maximum, Suetonium

Tranquillum, Fabium Marcellinum, Gargilium Martialem, Iulium Capitolinum, Aelium Lampridium

ceterosque, qui haec et talia non tarn diserte quam uere memoriae tradiderunt.

28 Q 1.3: in edendis bonis malisque principibus. 29 Q 2.1-4. Compare Q 13.5.

30 Car. 18.5: maxime cum uel uiuorum principum uita non sine reprehensione dicatur. This was at one

time the final sentence of the volume and of the collection as a whole: a suitably emphatic position for the title. The material between Car. 19.1 and 21.1 criticises excessive expenditure on games. It

is a miscellaneous addendum. A subscription follows.

31 The author addressed Diocletian, the last emperor mentioned in the collection, as tot principum maxime: Ael. 1.1. The author worried that it would bore Constantine to read singulos quosqueprinci

pes uel principum liberosper libros singulos: Max. 1.1. (Note, however, that the word imperatores is

used in a similar construction at Gd. 1.1.) The author suggested that the emperor Alexander Severus

wrote lives of the good emperors (AS 27.8): uitas principum bonorum uersibus scripsit. 32 The singular uita is appropriate. V 1.1; Tac. 16.5.

33 Karl Lessing, Scriptorum Historiae Augustae Lexicon (Leipzig, 1901-6, reprinted 1964), 475-478.

It appears in generic contexts: in catalogues of emperors (VI.3; A 44.1; Tac. 30.6; Car. 3.8) and in

other moralising reflections on government (Hel. 3.2; 10.4). It appears alongside key adjectives such

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The Original Title of the Historia Augusta 125

Caesars or usurpers.34 Its meaning is elastic, as one might expect from such a generic term, suitable for

a collection that recorded the lives of many different kinds of rulers.

This discussion of the original title of the HA may have some more general implications. Although some might deny that all the lives originally appeared under a uniform title, there is certainly an element

of uniformity in the language used to designate the collection, another indication that it is the work of a

single author. What is most interesting perhaps is the disappearance of the original title and its replace ment during the ninth century or even earlier, with inferior and misleading alternatives. The effacement of

the original title of the HA may be associated with other accidents in its tradition, notably the loss of its

general preface, the loss of the lives of Nerva and Trajan and the disorganisation of the lives from Hadrian

to Alexander Severus. These questions, however intriguing, go beyond the scope of the present note.

Payneham - St. Lucia, Australia Mark Thomson

as sanctus (MA 19.6) tantus (H 13.5) optimus (AP 13.3) and necessarius (A 37.1). The author even

introduced the phrase princeps principum, a parody of the title of the Persian king, rex regum: Val.

2.1. Otto Hirschfeld questioned this reading in his Kleine Schriften (Berlin, 1913), 900.

34 T 15.1; 26.2; 27.1; 31.1.

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