page_title: Historia Augusta
section_title: Examples of false historical events and personages
hierarchical_section_title: Historia Augusta / Historical value / Examples of false historical events and personages
caption_attribution_description: English: Trebellianus was a Roman usurper listed among the thirty tyrants in the Historia Augusta. Modern historians consider this figure a character invented by the author of Historia, whose traditional name was Trebonianus Pollius.
context_page_description: The Historia Augusta is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the similar work of Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, it presents itself as a compilation of works by six different authors, written during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine I and addressed to those emperors or other important personages in Ancient Rome. The collection, as extant, comprises thirty biographies, most of which contain the life of a single emperor, but some include a group of two or more, grouped together merely because these emperors were either similar or contemporaneous.
  The true authorship of the work, its actual date, its reliability and its purpose have long been matters for controversy by historians and scholars ever since Hermann Dessau in 1889 rejected both the date and the authorship as stated within the manuscript. Major problems include the nature of the sources that it used, and how much of the content is pure fiction.
context_section_description: The untrustworthiness of the History stems from the multifarious kinds of fraudulent (as opposed to simply inaccurate) information that run through the work, becoming ever more dominant as it proceeds. The various biographies are ascribed to different invented 'authors', and continue with the dedicatory epistles to Diocletian and Constantine, the quotation of fabricated documents, the citation of non-historical 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. For example:
  The biography of Geta states he was born in Mediolanum on 27 May; the year is not specified but it was 'in the suffect consulships of Severus and Vitellius'. He was actually born in Rome on 7 March 189; there was no such pair of suffect consuls in this or any other year; however, it has been suggested that the names for these persons be amended to be Severus and Vettulenus, and that these men were suffect consuls sometime before 192.
  In the Vita Commodi, the biography on emperor Commodus, there is much doubt about the authenticity of the sources used and cited. Lampridius (the pseudonym the author works with here) claims to have used Marius Maximus on multiple occasions for his work. One instance forms a case in point: Lampridius (supposedly) quotes the senatorial speeches in Maximus’ work which were held after Commodus’ death. However, it is unclear whether the references to Maximus are genuine or made up by the author to give himself a sense of authority and expertise. Baldwin thinks that the senatorial speeches are probably a figment of Lampridius’ imagination. Molinier-Arbo, however, believes in their authenticity. She suggests that the full report of the acta senatus (lit. acts of the senate) was handed down in the acta urbis (a kind of city gazette). Marius Maximus could have used this report for his work and Lampridius could have used it later on.
  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' consulship fell in 134, and Hadrian adopted Aelius in 136. The letter is said to have been published by Hadrian's freedman Phlegon, with the letter's existence not mentioned anywhere except in the History, 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.
  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.
  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'. The number 30 is evidently modelled on 
caption: Trebellianus, one of the fictitious tyrants included in the Historia Augusta, drawn by Guillaume Rouillé in  Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum- 1553
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