Two Textual Notes on Aurelius Victor’s Liber de Caesaribus

107 TWO TEXTUAL NOTES ON AURELIUS VICTOR'S L1BER DE CAESARIBUS 1) In a recent article 1 Professor Shackleton Bailey addressed inter alia the problem posed by De Caesaribus 20.10: Pescennium Nigrum apud Cyzicenos, Clodium Albinum Lugduni victos coegit mori . .. . Horum _J~finita caede crudel ior habitus ... He noted that lithe words omitted merely summarized the of two persons (i.e. Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus). But how do you make an unbounded slaughter of two persons?" His plausible proposal was that one should read horum . Indeed, after the elimination of Albinus, over sixty supporters of Septimius Severus l two rivals were put on trial, and according to the H.A. forty-one were condemned to death. 2 - There is, however, a further possibility. The Historia Augusta (Sev.17.6-7) reads as follows: Denique cognomentum Pertinacis non tam ex sua voluntate quam ex morum parsimonia videtur habuisse. Nam et infinita multorum caede crudelior habitus The close relationship between De Caes.20.1 and 20.10-30 and H.A. Sev.17.5-19.4 is well known. 3 Even Momigliano considered this t~ 1D. R. Shackleton Bailey, "Textual Notes on Lesser Latin Historians," HSCP 85 (1981) 179. The text followed throughout is that of F. Pichlmayr and R. Gruendel, Sexti Aurel ii Victoris Liber De Caesaribus (Leipzig 1966). 2Cf. Dio 75.8.3; H.A. Sev.9; 12; 13; Herod. 3.4.7; 3.8.1 (cited by Shackleton Bailey, ~£!.!. [above, n. 1)). 3H . Dessau, "Liber Zeit und Personlichkeit der S.H.A. ," Hermes H. W. BIRD lithe strongest single argument for a post-Constantinian date (for the ~.)1I.4 It appears, therefore, that the author of the ~ copied his statement infinita mu~torum caede crudelior habitus directly from Victor and, furthermore, did not connect it with the account of the destruction of Niger and Albinus. In fact, if one reads further in the ~_a_esaribus passage under discussion one notes that Victor uses the term infinita caede to help to explain Severus' cognom~~ Pertinax and to counter those who had ascribed it to the emperor's vitae parsimonia. Victor then reports an example of one of Severus' victims but subsequently seeks to rationalize and justify the emperor's cruelty as essential for crushing conspiracies and protecting his fellow citizens. 5 Severus' multiple executions and the clear correspondence between the account of the ~ and that of the ~Caesaribus indicate that in all probability Victor's text should be emended to read Multorum infinita caede .... 2) De Caesaribus 24.5 in the Teubner text reads as follows: Opus urbi florentissimulTI celeb!:~ fabricatus est 24 (1889) 337; R. Syme. Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (Oxford 1968) 106-107; P. Soverin I, Probleml dI crrtlca testua Ie nella Historia Augusl~ (Bologna 1981) 48-62. 4A Momigliano, "An Unsolved Problem of Historical Forgery; The Sc ri tores Historiae Au ustae, II in Stud ies in Historiog raph'y (London 1966 152. or a ul statement or. the sources of the R.A., see now T. D. Barnes, The So~..r:..c_es of the Historia Augusta (Brussels 1978). For Aurelius Victor see P. L. Schmidt, liS. Aurelius Victor, Historiae Abbreviatae," RE Suppl. XV, (Munich 1978) 1667ff. and H. W. Bird, liThe Sources Otthe De Caesaribus," C.Q. 31 (1981) 457ff. Cf. W. den Boer, Some Minor Roman RIstorlans---n::.eiden 1972} 48-51. 5Victor, an African himself, allows more space to Severus than to any other empe"or than Constantine and is very favourably c~:sPOsC(; ~owards his fellow countryman. NOTES ON AURELIUS VICTOR'S L1BER DE CAESARIBLiS 109 Various unacceptable emendations have been tried 6 and O'Elia admits being perplexed. "Cosa nasconde la lezione celeb rio ? Forse celerior? Nessuna delle congetture proposte mi soddisfa. E uno dei casi in cui "editore deve onestamente rassegnarsi alia crux dei loci desperati. 11 7 First, what might this opus florentissimum have been? Probably the Opus Alexandrinum or Thermae Alexandrinae 0'Elia 8 (presumably following the ~) suggests. These Baths of Alexander, supplied by an aqueduct also bearing the emperor's name, were located on the Campus Martius between the Stadium and the Pantheon and north east of the latter, that is in a very wellfrequented spot...