New Light on theHistoria Augusta

This paper presents a new manuscript of part of theHistoria Augustafrom Erlangen, which vindicates a more than century-old hypothesis by E. Patzig: that the 1489 Venice edition of the work is textually valuable. On this basis, and building on the recent work of R. Modonutti, I present five new passages that are not printed in modern editions of theHA, six lacunose passages restored, and propose that the lost Murbach manuscript is the source. Armed with this new evidence, I re-examine the question of the great lacuna between theLives of Maximus and Balbinusand theLives of the Two Valerians, showing that it is a codicological — and not authorial — feature.