ÆLIUS, one of the writers of the Augustan History, who lived at the beginning of the fourth century, during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantius, to whom he dedicates his work. The Augustan History is composed by six different authors, and contains a series of biographical sketches of the Roman emperors, from Hadrian to Carus and his sons (117-285, A.D.) These authors were Ælius Spartianus, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio, Flavius Vopiscus, Ælius Lampridius, and Julius Capitolinus. Lampridius wrote the four lives of Commodus, Diadumenus, Helbigabulus, and Alexander Severus. He seems to have been more attentive to the accuracy of his facts than to the beauty of his style. It is supposed by Vossius (De Hist. Lat. ii. 7), and by Fabricius (Biblioth. Lat. iii. 6), that Lampridius and Spartanus are the same writer; but this opinion has been ably refuted by Demoulin. (See Moller, Diss. de Æl. Lampridio, Altorf, 1688; Casaubon, ad Sport. Adrian.)