Lampridius, Julius

, a Latin historian, flourished under the emperors Dioclesian and Constantine, in the fourth century. We have of his writing, the lives of four emperors, viz. Commodus, Antoninus, Diadumenus, and Heliogabalus; the two last of which he dedicated to Constantine the Great. The first edition of Lampridius, which was printed at Milan, ascribes to him the life of Alexander Severus; though the manuscript in the Palatine library, and Robert a Porta of Bologna, give it to Spartian. As they both had the same surname Ælius, some authors will have them to be one and the same person. Vopiscus says, that Lampridius is one of the writers whom he imitated in his “LifeofProbus.” ²