Augustan Histories [Historia Augusta]
Scriptores Historiae Augustae
117-284 AD
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Imperial Era)
FLAVI VOPISCI SYRACUSII
FIRMUS SATURNINUS
PROCULUS ET BONOS<US>
<i.e. QUADRIGAE TYRANNORUM>
I. 1 Minusculos tyrannos scio plerosque tacuisse aut breviter praeterisse.
[I know that many two-bit tyrannical rulers have hushed their voice and only briefly passed along.]
nam et Suetonius Tranquillus, emendatissimus et candidissimus scriptor, Antoni[n]um, Vindicem tacuit,
[you see, Suetonius Tranquillus, one of the most honest and accurate writers, omitted Antoninus and Vindex,]
contentus eo quod eos cursim perstrinxerat,
[content in the fact that he had hastily strung these men along,]
et Marius Maximus, qui Avidium Marci temporibus, Albinum et Nigrum Severi non suis propriis libris sed alienis innexuit.
[and Marius Maximus, who had latched onto Avidius, during the period in which Marcus, and Albinus and Niger during the reign of Severus, not from his own books, but those that belong to others.]
2 et de Suetonio non miramur,
[And I'm not suprised when it comes to Suetonius,]
cui familiare fuit amare brevitatem.
[for whom it was a familiar custom to delight in brevity.]
quid Marius Maximus, homo omnium verbosissimus, qui et mythist[h]oricis se voluminibus inplicavit, num ad istam descriptionem curamque descendit?
[But why wouldn't Marius Maximus, a man who was as long-winded as you could find them and who linked himself to the scrolls of mythographers, not descend upon such a rendition and topic of interest as we have here?]
3 atque contra, Treb<ell>i<u>s Pollio ea fuit diligentia,
[And on the other side, there was Trebellius Pollio, with that kind of diligence,]
ea cura in edendis bonis malisque principibus,
[and that kind of interest in publishing the good and evil deeds of our emperors,]
ut etiam triginta tyrannos uno breviter libro concluderet,
[and to what avail? That he finished describing thirty tyrannical rulers briefly and in a single book,]
qui Valeriani et Gallieni nec multo superiorum aut inferiorum principum fuere temporibus.
[and those Valerians and Gallieni, who, by great extent, did not belong to a time ruled by superior or inferior emperors.]
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