CAPITOLINO, GIULIO. - According to historiographical tradition, he is one of the six authors of the Historia Augusta, a collection of biographies of various Roman emperors; the lives of Antonino Pio, Marco Aurelio, Lucio Vero, Pertinace, Macrino, and other lesser figures are attributed to him. But, while some recent critics go so far as virtually to deny the existence of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, others attribute to C. a reworking of the entire work precisely in order to give it unity. The last phase of the Constantinian government may be taken as the period of his activity; taken as a whole, the value of his writings is slight, and they reveal a pro-senatorial tendency.
BIBL.: The critical edition of the Historia Augusta in the Teubner collection of Leipzig (1927), edited by E. Holl. - N. H. Baynes, The Historia Augusta. Its Date and Purpose, Oxford 1926; G. Barbieri, Il problema del cosiddetto ultimo grande storico di Roma, in Annali R. Scuola normale di Pisa, 2ª serie, 3 (1934), pp. 525-538; P. Lambrechts, Le problème de l'Histoire Auguste, in L'antiquité classique, 3 (1934), pp. 503-56. Paolo Brezzi