CHAPTER I

General sketch of conditions, 1. The Augustan Histories and their writers, 2. Lampridius, author of the Life of Elagabalus, 4. First attempts at criticism, 4. Modern criticism, 4. Latin sources: Marius Maximus, 5. Greek sources: Dion Cassius, Xiphilinus, 7. Herodian, 8. General attack on the authenticity of the “Lives,” 9. Mommsen’s opinion, 10. Peter, Richter, Dessau, Seeck, Klebs, Kornemann, 11-15. Italian opinion, 15. General opinion of the biographies, 16. Reasons for the tainted sources, 18. Church historians, 19. Jurisprudence, 21. Numismatists, 21. Object of this work, 23.