The Lararium of Severus Alexander (HA 29.2; 31.4–5): Rereading a Popular Fable of Syncretistic Christ Devotion

The famous account in the Historia Augusta of Severus Alexander’s lararium , which contained an image of Christ alongside other figures including Apollonius of Tyana, Vergil, Orpheus, and Achilles, has long been accepted with insufficient discernment and dubious judgment. The present article challenges this ongoing scholarly trend, suggesting that the story should be rejected not only as history but even as a plausible fiction. In defense of this position, both literary and archeological evidence is presented and considered. Ultimately, in line with the basic orientation of modern HA scholarship, the whole tradition is suggested to be understood best as a fictive expression of “innovative traditionalism,” i.e. part of the late fourth-century polytheistic author’s fanciful yet culturally conservative reaction to the ascendant Christian culture of the post-Theodosian world.