LAMPRIDIO, ELIO. — One of the six writers to whom the compilation of the history of the Roman emperors from Hadrian (A.D. 117) to Numerian (284) is owed. He lived in the age of Diocletian and Constantine, to the latter of whom two of the four lives attributed to L. are dedicated, namely those of Elagabalus and Severus Alexander.
On the complex question of the writers of the Historia Augusta V. STORIA AUGUSTA. Like the other writers of the Historia Augusta, L., rather than presenting a political view of the conditions of the Empire, indulges in information concerning the life and habits of the sovereign, something explicable in view of the fact that, in centralized regimes, everything is examined from the standpoint of the ruler.
His style lacks elegance, and his language is barbarous; in compensation, however, the information he provides is drawn from sources.
To him we owe the information concerning Severus Alexander’s favorable disposition toward Christians, not only insofar as he generally granted them the free exercise of their religion (“christianos esse passus est”), but also insofar as he specifically recalls the following cases: the veneration he accorded to Jesus Christ together with Abraham and Orpheus in his household shrine (“in larario suo... Christum Abraham et Orfeum et huiuscemodi habebat”, 29, 2), and his intention of erecting a temple to him (“templum Christo facere voluit eumque inter deos recipere”, 43, 6); the inscription he had placed on the walls of the palace, concerning the maxim that one must not do to others what one does not wish done to oneself (“quod a quibusdam sive christianis audient et tenebat: quod tibi non vis fieri, alteri ne feceris”, 51, 7); the publication of the names of candidates for public office (“cum id christiani facerent in praedicandis sacerdotibus”); and the granting to Christians of a public site, which certain tavern-keepers were disputing with them, with the declaration: “melius esse ut quomodocumque illic Deus colatur quam popinariis dedatur”.