Lampridius Aelius

Historiae Augustae

His name is prefixed to the biographies of, 1. Commodus 2. Antoninus Diadumenus 3. Elagiabalus 4. Alexander Severus Of these the first and third are inscribed to Diocletian, the second to no one, the fourth to Constantine. In the Palatine MS. all the lives from Hadrianus down to Alexander Severus inclusive are attributed to Aelius Spartianus, and hence Salnasius has conjectured, with great plausioility, that he is one and the same with Lampridius, and that the name of the author in full was Aelius Lampridius Spartianus, a supposition in some degree confirmed by the circumstance that Vopiscus, in referring to the writers who had preceded him, makes special mention of Trebellius Pollio, Julius Capitolinus, and Aelius Lampridius; but says not a word of Spartianus. Be that as it may, if we examine carefully the lives of Commodus and Diadumenus, we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that they are from the same pen with those of M. Aurelius and Macrinus, both of which are ascribed to Capitolinus. Again, the dedication of the Elagabalus to Diocletian is manifestly erroneous, for in two places (100.2, 34) Constantine is directly addressed, and in the latter passage the author announces an intention, which he repeats in Alexander Severus (100.64), of continuing his undertaking down to the time of Constantine. We have ill a former article [CAPITOLINUS] remarked that it is impossible, in the absence of all trustworthy evidence, to assign the pieces which form this collection with any certainty to their real owners.