Augustan History - Examples of Falsehood: A Small Selection

Examples of Falsehood: A Small Selection

As indicated above, the untrustworthiness of the HA stems from the multifarious kinds of fraudulent (as opposed to simply inaccurate) information that run through the whole work, becoming ever more dominant as it proceeds. Species of fraudulence begin with the ascription of the various biographies to different invented 'authors', and continue with the dedicatory epistles to Diocletian and Constantine, the quotation of fabricated documents, the citation of non-existent authorities, the invention of persons (extending even to the subjects of some of the minor biographies), presentation of contradictory information to confuse an issue while making a show of objectivity, deliberately false statements, and the inclusion of material which can be shown to relate to events or personages of the late 4th century rather than the period supposedly being written about.

Specific examples would be endless: the following, both minor and major in effect, are merely typical.

• The biography of Geta states he was born at Mediolanum on 27 May; the year is not specified but it was 'in the suffect consulships of Severus and Vitellius'. He was actually born at Rome on 7 March 189; there was no such pair of suffect consuls in this or any other year.

• A letter of Hadrian written from Egypt to his brother-in-law Servianus is quoted at length (and was accepted as genuine by many authorities well into the 20th century). Servianus is saluted as consul, and Hadrian mentions his (adopted) son Lucius Aelius Caesar: but Hadrian was in Egypt in 130, Servianus's consulship fell in 134, and Hadrian adopted Aelius in 136. The letter is said to have been published by Hadrian's freedman Phlegon (whose existence is mentioned nowhere except in the HA, in another suspect passage). A passage in the letter dealing with the frivolousness of Egyptian religious beliefs refers to the Patriarch, head of the Jewish community in the Empire. This office only came into being after Hadrian put down the Jewish revolt of 132, and the passage is probably meant in mockery of the powerful late 4th-century Patriarch, Gamaliel. (See R. Syme, Emperors and Biography, pp. 21–24.) Christian theologian Joseph Barber Lightfoot argued for the authenticity of the letter since it doesn't state it was written in Egypt (132) and that an alternative date for the adoption of Aelius was on or before 134.

• Decius revives the office of Censor; the Senate acclaims Valerian as worthy to hold it in a decree dated 27 October 251. The decree is brought to Decius (on campaign against the Goths) and he summons Valerian to bestow the honour. The revival of the censorship is fictitious, and Decius had been dead for several months by the date stated. (Syme, op. cit., p. 215)

• Valerian writes to 'Zosimius', procurator of Syria (otherwise unknown) instructing him to furnish the young Claudius with military equipment including a pair of aclydes. The aclys (a kind of Homeric javelin) is a weapon only found in poetry (e.g. Virgil, Aeneid VII.730). (Syme, op. cit., p. 216)

• Valerian holds an imperial council in Byzantium, attended by several named dignitaries, none of them otherwise attested and some holding offices not known to exist until the following century, at which the general 'Ulpius Crinitus' (a name apparently chosen to evoke the military glories of the Emperor Trajan) takes the young Aurelian (destined to be another military Emperor) as his adopted son. There are no grounds to believe this is anything other than invention.

• In the Tyranni Triginta, the author 'Trebellius Pollio' sets out to chronicle 'the 30 usurpers who arose in the years when the Empire was ruled by Gallienus and Valerian' (I, 1). The number 30 is evidently modelled on the notorious 'Thirty Tyrants' who ruled Athens after the end of the Peloponnesian War. The chapter contains 32 mini-biographies. They include two women, six youths, and seven men who never claimed the imperial power; one usurper of the reign of Maximinus Thrax, one of the time of Decius, and two of the time of Aurelian; and four who are entirely fictitious.

• The Emperor Tacitus is acclaimed by the Senate, meeting in the 'Curia Pompiliana' (no such building) and after orations by the consul 'Velius Cornificius Gordianus' (no such person) and 'Maecius Faltonius Nicomachus' (ditto: most of the 'Maecii' in the HA are invented), he goes to the Campus Martius and is presented to the troops by the Prefect of the City 'Aelius Cesettianus' (no such person) and the Praetorian Prefect 'Moesius Gallicanus' (ditto: the HA has several invented 'Gallicani'). Private letters commending Tacitus are quoted from the senators 'Autronius Tiberianus' and 'Claudius Sapilianus' (no reason to believe in them, either). (Syme, op. cit., pp. 238–239)

• In the Quadrigae Tyrannorum, the author includes Firmus, said to have been a usurper in Egypt under Aurelian. There is no certainty that this person ever existed, and the HA's wealth of detail about him is wilful invention: he would eat an ostrich a day, he had a carriage drawn by ostriches, he would swim among crocodiles, he built himself a palace out of cubes of glass, and so on.

• In the Life of Probus (Ch.XXIV, 1-3), the author 'Flavius Vopiscus of Syracuse' states that the Emperor's descendants (posteri) fled from Rome and settled near Verona. There a statue of Probus was struck by lightning, a portent according to soothsayers 'that future generations of the family would rise to such distinction in the senate they all would hold the highest posts', though Vopiscus (supposedly writing under Constantine) says this prophecy has not yet come to pass. This is one of the strongest indications of the HA's late 4th-century date, as it seems to be a fairly transparent allusion to the rich and powerful senator Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus (consul in 371) whose two sons held the consulship together in 395. Petronius Probus was born in Verona.