M/M: Baby, You Can Drive My Car: SHA Vit. Commodi 3.5-6

Name: Scriptores Historia Augusta Date:   Unknown Region:    Unknown Citation:    Life of Commodus  3.5-6

It is important to note that the shock of Commodus sharing the triumphal chariot with his lover Saoterus was not due to their relationship, but because only the triumphal hero should be riding the chariot. Equal shock is given in Marcus Aurelius' biography, when he allows Commodus to stand in the triumphal chariot, while the emperor walks on foot [SHA Vit. Marc. Ant. XVI.2].

Commodus gave up the war that his father [Marcus Aurelius] had nearly completed, agreeing to the enemy’s terms. When he returned to Rome, he entered in triumph together with his lover Saoterus in the same chariot; more than once he leaned over and kissed him in public. He also kissed him in the Senate house.

Bellum etiam, quod pater paene confecerat, legibus hostium addictus remisit ac Romam reversus est. 6 Romam ut redit, subactore suo Saotero post se in curru locato ita triumphavit, ut eum saepius cervice reflexa publice oscularetur. Etiam in orchestra hoc idem fecit.

--SHA, Vita Commodi III.5-6

 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.