Certissimo argumento aeternitati plus conferre tenuissimas membranas quam praedura marmora
De la plausibilité de quelques restitutions
abstract
The Aureolus inscription is a text transmitted by the Vita Triginta tyrannorum as an awkward translation made by a grammarian. It has been unanimously regarded as a forgery, created by Trebellius Pollio. The inscription is quoted in his Rerum patriae by Andrea Alciato, who translates it again in a first draft of his Antiquitates Mediolanenses, before giving his own translation in the Dresdensis manuscript, from which it goes one’s own way until being denounced as a forgery by Mommsen. Is it a double forgery? One will find here some evidence in favour of the rehabilitation of the testimony of the Historia Augusta.
Keywords: Authenticity • Aureolus • Epigraphic forgery • Trebellius Pollio • Andrea Alciato