Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2011
The object of this short note is to check the date of the ‘Historia Augusta,’ which is usually determined from a number of very special allusions, by its attitude towards a matter of universal interest — religion.
1 I shall speak conventionally of the ‘writers’ of the ‘Historia,’ but assume as a working hypothesis that the work, as we have it, is one.
2 But see also below.
3 Sev. Alex. 29.2, 43, 6.7.
4 Sev. Alex. 49.6.
5 Aurelian, 20.5.
6 Firmus, etc. 8.
7 Cf. Claudius 13.1–3: Constantius Chlorus was son of Claudia, who was daughter of Crispus, brother of Claudius. The earlier version made Constantius a son of Claudius.
8 The ‘Historia Augusta: Re date and purpose.’ Cambridge, 1926.
9 E.g. recent consulship of Furius Placidus (Aurelian, 15.4) perhaps to be identified with a consul of A.D. 343: Vopiscus's grandfather is represented as a contemporary of Diocletian (Carus, 14, etc.).