M/M: The Emperor's Beloved: Antinous, SHA Vit. Hadr. 14.5-7

Name: Scriptores Historia Augusta Date:   Unknown Region:    Unknown Citation:    Life of Hadrian 14.5-7

While traveling down the Nile, [The Emperor Hadrian] lost his lover Antinous and mourned him excessively. There are several rumors about how it happened. Some say that Antinous was ritually sacrificed to preserve the Emperor’s life, while others consider the youth’s beauty and the Emperor’s passion for him and think it was the result of a lover’s quarrel. The Greeks even deified the youth at the Emperor’s behest, and claim that his spirit gave oracles, but many dismiss these as being written not by Antinous but the Emperor himself. 

Antinoum suum, dum per Nilum navigat, perdidit, quem muliebriter flevit. de quo varia fama est, aliis eum devotum pro Hadriano adserentibus, aliis quod et forma eius ostetat et nimia voluptas Hadriani. et Graeci quidem volente Hadriano eum consecraverunt, oracula per eum dari adserentes, quae Hadrianus ipse composuisse iactatur.

Scriptores Historiae Augustae Little is known about the author(s) of the Historia Augusta; even internal evidence within the text is either falsified, skewed or utterly fictitious. Although attributed to six different authors, the text was likely written by a single author living during the 4th century CE. It is a series of imperial biographies modeled after the works of Suetonius; these biographies cover the reigns of the emperors Hadrian through Carus.