Bust of Aurelian or Diocletian; Archaeological Museum of Istanbul
Ouch. The press release over here is written in Dutch, or perhaps not even that, because it contains a terrible Germanism in the headline. That’s not a recommendation for an article on linguistics. The fact that the author of the press release dates Diocletian to 284 Before Christ does not inspire much confidence either.
Yet the article is actually interesting. It’s about a Ph.D. thesis, Style and structure of the Historia Augusta, by classicist Diederik Burgersdijk; he argues that there are substantial differences between the various parts of the Historia Augusta, which he connects to the use of different sources. We already knew that, but if the press release is correct, Burgersdijk also argues that there were various stages of composition as well. And that is, as I said, quite interesting.
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Most commentators are unanimous in their opinion that the Augusta Historia was a fraud.I obtain my history from Suetonius’s “Private lives of the 12 Caesars” or better still,Tacitus or the memoirs of Pliny,the elder.