{"product_id":"9780674997462","title":"Historia Augusta, Volume III by David Rohrbacher","description":"March of the emperors.   The Historia Augusta  is a biographical work roughly following the model of the imperial  biographer Suetonius (LCL 31, 38) and covering the lives of the Roman  emperors from Hadrian (r. 117-138) to Carinus (r. 283-285), with a  lacuna between the lives of the Gordians and the Valerians. Although the  work comes down to us as a collection of thirty books written by six  different authors, it is now generally considered to be the creation of a  single individual writing under several pseudonyms no earlier than the  late fourth century. It is a thoroughly enigmatic work whose origins,  nature, and purpose remain obscure; the very beginning of the life of  Hadrian is lost, and with it any general introduction that may have  existed.   While the Historia Augusta is our most detailed  surviving source for the second and third centuries, often providing  details beyond the Greek accounts, it is not a trustworthy source for  historical information: too many of the details are anachronistic,  unsupported, or preposterous, or contradicted internally or by better  sources, and many documents, speeches, acclamations, and inscriptions  that it quotes or cites are entirely fictional.   The Historia Augusta  nevertheless has its attractions: for the connoisseur of biography the  author provides plenty of wordplay, puns, allusions, literary games, and  mock-scholarly digressions, and for the casual reader he offers vivid  characterizations of emperors both good and bad.   This revision of  the original Loeb edition by David Magie offers text, translation, and  annotation that are fully current with modern scholarship.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311846568309,"sku":"9780674997462","price":24.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674997462.jpg?v=1762819611","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9780674997462","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}