Marius Maximus
Encyclopedia
Marius Maximus was a Roman biographer, writing in Latin
, who in the early decades of the 3rd century AD wrote a series of biographies of twelve Emperors, imitating and continuing Suetonius
. Marius’s work is lost, but it was still being read in the late 4th century and was used as a source by writers of that era, notably the author of the Historia Augusta. The nature and reliability of Marius’s work, and the extent to which the earlier part of the HA draws upon it, are two vexed questions among the many problems that the HA continues to pose for students of Roman history and literature.
dynasty, whose career is known from inscriptions, L. Marius Maximus Perpetuus Aurelianus, twice consul
and once Prefect of the City of Rome. His family may have hailed from Africa
and was not senatorial; his father, L. Marius Perpetuus, was an Equestrian procurator in Gaul
but evidently secured entry to the senatorial order for his son as a novus homo
. Marius Maximus was probably born about 160 AD and became a senator under Commodus
. In 193, when Septimius Severus
seized power, he was legate of Legio I Italica
on the lower Danube
and was involved in the campaign against Pescennius Niger
. In 197 he fought at the Battle of Lugdunum
against Clodius Albinus
and was then appointed governor of Gallia Belgica
. His first, suffect consulship is presumed to have fallen about 199. In 208 he was governing Coele-Syria
and a few years later he became the first ex-consul ever to hold both the Proconsul
ship of Asia
, and that of Africa, in succession. (The order is not certain; it was unprecedented to hold both Proconsulships, either one of which conventionally crowned a senator’s career.) This suggests he was high in favour with Caracalla
, but Marius went on to serve as Praefectus Urbi in 217 under Macrinus
. He was consul for the second time in 223 as colleague of the Emperor Alexander Severus
. His date of death is unknown. His son was consul in 232.
to that of Elagabalus
. As an eyewitness who experienced at least seven of these reigns from positions of authority, Maximus could have taken up the writing of history like his contemporary Dio Cassius
, but he preferred the anecdotal and, indeed, frivolous forms of biography. His writings come in for adverse criticism from Jerome
, Ammianus Marcellinus
, and also the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta, who nevertheless cites him directly at least 26 times (apparently in most cases quoting or summarizing passages from Marius’s lost work) and probably uses him in many places elsewhere. Marius’s intention seems to have been to follow and out-perform Suetonius in serving up gossip, spicy details of the Emperors’ private lives, cynical comments, scandalous anecdotes and curiosa. He also quoted from letters, senatorial edicts and so on, but seems to have invented some of these – a practice which the HA author adopted with enormous enthusiasm and bravura. However his work, sensationalist or not, must have contained much valuable information. The HA’s narration of the assassination of Elagabalus, well told and full of authentic-seeming circumstantial detail, is generally considered to derive from Marius Maximus.
to Elagabalus in the HA employ Marius as their primary source material. Anthony Birley has recently offered the most detailed defense of this position. There is however a contrary view, most convincingly put by Sir Ronald Syme
, who points out that all the passages in which Marius is cited by name can be shown to be interpolations in the author’s main narrative, brought in to provide colour, frivolous anecdote or critical comment. Examples include the meat dish (tetrafarmacum) that Aelius Verus invented, Hadrian’s supposed expertise in astrology
, various stories to the discredit of Marcus Aurelius and his consort Faustina the Younger
, the senate’s craven catalogue of acclamations for Commodus, and so on. It is more likely in Syme's opinion that Marius was a secondary source, and that the HA author was following in the main a more sober source, ‘Ignotus, the Good Biographer’.
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, who in the early decades of the 3rd century AD wrote a series of biographies of twelve Emperors, imitating and continuing Suetonius
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
. Marius’s work is lost, but it was still being read in the late 4th century and was used as a source by writers of that era, notably the author of the Historia Augusta. The nature and reliability of Marius’s work, and the extent to which the earlier part of the HA draws upon it, are two vexed questions among the many problems that the HA continues to pose for students of Roman history and literature.
Career
It is more or less agreed that Marius Maximus the biographer is identical with one of the most successful senators of the SeveranSeverus
Emperors in the Severan dynasty*Septimius Severus , Roman Emperor from 193 to 211*Alexander Severus , Roman Emperor from 222 to 235*Flavius Valerius Severus , Roman Emperor from 306 to 307Other individuals...
dynasty, whose career is known from inscriptions, L. Marius Maximus Perpetuus Aurelianus, twice consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
and once Prefect of the City of Rome. His family may have hailed from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and was not senatorial; his father, L. Marius Perpetuus, was an Equestrian procurator in Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
but evidently secured entry to the senatorial order for his son as a novus homo
Novus homo
Homo novus was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul...
. Marius Maximus was probably born about 160 AD and became a senator under Commodus
Commodus
Commodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...
. In 193, when Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...
seized power, he was legate of Legio I Italica
Legio I Italica
Legio prima Italica was a Roman legion levied by emperor Nero on September 22, 66 . There are still records of the I Italica in the Danube border in the beginning of the 5th century...
on the lower Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and was involved in the campaign against Pescennius Niger
Pescennius Niger
Pescennius Niger was a Roman usurper from 193 to 194 during the Year of the Five Emperors. He claimed the imperial throne in response to the murder of Pertinax and the elevation of Didius Julianus, but was defeated by a rival claimant, Septimius Severus and killed while attempting to flee from...
. In 197 he fought at the Battle of Lugdunum
Battle of Lugdunum
The Battle of Lugdunum, also called the Battle of Lyon, was fought on 19 February 197 at Lugdunum , between the armies of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and of the Roman usurper Clodius Albinus...
against Clodius Albinus
Clodius Albinus
Clodius Albinus was a Roman usurper proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania upon the murder of Pertinax in 193.-Life:...
and was then appointed governor of Gallia Belgica
Gallia Belgica
Gallia Belgica was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of Gallia Belgica, the Belgae, consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes...
. His first, suffect consulship is presumed to have fallen about 199. In 208 he was governing Coele-Syria
Coele-Syria
Coele-Syria , or Cœle-Syria or Celesyria, traditionally given the meaning 'hollow' Syria, was the region of southern Syria disputed between the Seleucid dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty. Rather than limiting the Greek term to the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, it is often used to cover the entire area...
and a few years later he became the first ex-consul ever to hold both the Proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
ship of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, and that of Africa, in succession. (The order is not certain; it was unprecedented to hold both Proconsulships, either one of which conventionally crowned a senator’s career.) This suggests he was high in favour with Caracalla
Caracalla
Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...
, but Marius went on to serve as Praefectus Urbi in 217 under Macrinus
Macrinus
Macrinus , was Roman Emperor from 217 to 218. Macrinus was of "Moorish" descent and the first emperor to become so without membership in the senatorial class.-Background and career:...
. He was consul for the second time in 223 as colleague of the Emperor Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty...
. His date of death is unknown. His son was consul in 232.
The biographies
It is not known for certain when Marius wrote his work, apparently entitled Caesares, but presumably towards the end of his career. It was intended as a continuation of the Twelve Caesars of Suetonius, and apparently covered the next twelve reigns, from NervaNerva
Nerva , was Roman Emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became Emperor at the age of sixty-five, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. Under Nero, he was a member of the imperial entourage and played a vital part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of 65...
to that of Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
. As an eyewitness who experienced at least seven of these reigns from positions of authority, Maximus could have taken up the writing of history like his contemporary Dio Cassius
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
, but he preferred the anecdotal and, indeed, frivolous forms of biography. His writings come in for adverse criticism from Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
, Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
, and also the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta, who nevertheless cites him directly at least 26 times (apparently in most cases quoting or summarizing passages from Marius’s lost work) and probably uses him in many places elsewhere. Marius’s intention seems to have been to follow and out-perform Suetonius in serving up gossip, spicy details of the Emperors’ private lives, cynical comments, scandalous anecdotes and curiosa. He also quoted from letters, senatorial edicts and so on, but seems to have invented some of these – a practice which the HA author adopted with enormous enthusiasm and bravura. However his work, sensationalist or not, must have contained much valuable information. The HA’s narration of the assassination of Elagabalus, well told and full of authentic-seeming circumstantial detail, is generally considered to derive from Marius Maximus.
Marius and the Historia Augusta
There has long been a school of thought that holds that the lives of the Emperors HadrianHadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
to Elagabalus in the HA employ Marius as their primary source material. Anthony Birley has recently offered the most detailed defense of this position. There is however a contrary view, most convincingly put by Sir Ronald Syme
Ronald Syme
Sir Ronald Syme, OM, FBA was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. Long associated with Oxford University, he is widely regarded as the 20th century's greatest historian of ancient Rome...
, who points out that all the passages in which Marius is cited by name can be shown to be interpolations in the author’s main narrative, brought in to provide colour, frivolous anecdote or critical comment. Examples include the meat dish (tetrafarmacum) that Aelius Verus invented, Hadrian’s supposed expertise in astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
, various stories to the discredit of Marcus Aurelius and his consort Faustina the Younger
Faustina the Younger
Annia Galeria Faustina Minor , Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger was a daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. She was a Roman Empress and wife to her maternal cousin Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius...
, the senate’s craven catalogue of acclamations for Commodus, and so on. It is more likely in Syme's opinion that Marius was a secondary source, and that the HA author was following in the main a more sober source, ‘Ignotus, the Good Biographer’.
Fragments and Testimonia
Sources
- Anthony Birley, "Marius Maximus: The Consular Biographer," ANRW II.34.3 (1997) 2678-2757.
- Sir Ronald Syme, Ammanius and the Historia Augusta (Oxford, 1968)
- Sir Ronald Syme, Emperors and Biography (Oxford, 1971)