Aelius Cordus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aelius Cordus (also mentioned as Junius Cordus in part) was supposedly a 3rd century Roman historian .

Cordus is mentioned in several imperial servants by the anonymous author of the Late Antique Historia Augusta . It is said to have been used by the (alleged) author Iulius Capitolinus in his imperial biographies within the Historia Augusta , who refers to him in the Vita Maximini duo and in the Vita Maximi et Balbini . Cordus' work is said to have dealt with several emperors of the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries, although he himself is said to have tended to debauchery.

In older research, the existence of this author was recognized by some scholars; nor did Adolf Lippold rule out the possibility that a historian by the name of Cordus, who covered the period from 193 to 238, could have been consulted by the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta . In research today, however, it is generally assumed that Cordus, who is also not mentioned in other sources, never existed. This is supported, among other things, by the fact that some statements that the author of the Historia Augusta traces back to Cordus are apparently based on other sources. The anonymous author of the often notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta was evidently not a shame to invent not only documents but also sources of information (some of whom he then contradicted). But the fictional Cordus is just one of the many puzzles that this arguably most controversial historical work of antiquity poses to modern research.

literature

  • Hartwin Brandt : Commentary on the Vita Maximi et Balbini of the Historia Augusta . Bonn 1996.
  • Adolf Lippold : Commentary on the Vita Maximini Duo of the Historia Augusta . Bonn 1991.
  • Ronald Syme : Bogus authors . In: Ders .: Historia Augusta Papers . Oxford 1983, pp. 98-108.

Remarks

  1. ↑ On the research problem, see the article Historia Augusta . Even if the HA states that the work was written by six different authors, there is hardly any doubt in modern research that the work was written by just one person.
  2. ↑ See for example HA, Vita Maximi et Balbini 4.
  3. ↑ Lippold, Commentary , pp. 84ff.
  4. ↑ See, inter alia, Brandt, Commentary , p. 52ff .; Johannes Straub : Studies on the Historia Augusta . Bern 1952, p. 162; Diederik Burgersdijk: Nepos in the Historia Augusta . In: Hartwin Brandt, Giorgio Bonamente (ed.): Historiae Augustae Colloquium Bambergense (HAC X). Atti dei Convegni sulla Historia Augusta . Bari 2007, p. 96ff. See also Ronald Mellor: The Roman Historians . New York 1999, pp. 160f. Theodor Mommsen already rejected : Die Scriptores Historiae Augustae . In: Hermes 25 (1890), pp. 228-292 ( online here ), especially pp. 271f.
  5. ↑ About HA, Vita Maximi et Balbini 12.7, based on statements in Herodian's 8th book .
  6. ↑ Damis may have had a similar function in the Apolloniosvita of Philostratus .