Disputed traditions and common confusions

The following distinctions prevent vivid stories and recurring names from overwhelming the people they are meant to explain.

Issue	Distinction to preserve
Romulus and Numa	Their biographies and reign dates belong to later foundation tradition. Archaeological development of early Rome cannot be reduced to a sequence of securely documented royal careers.
The two principal Scipios	Africanus defeated Hannibal in 202 BCE. Aemilianus captured Carthage in 146 BCE and Numantia in 133 BCE. Adoption connects their families but does not make them the same commander.
The two Catos	The Elder was the censor who died in 149 BCE. The Younger opposed Caesar and died at Utica in 46 BCE.
The two Brutuses	Lucius Junius Brutus belongs to the traditional expulsion of the kings. Marcus Junius Brutus participated in Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE.
Caesar and the first emperor	Julius Caesar was a Republican dictator. Augustus established the durable imperial settlement conventionally dated from 27 BCE. Later rulers also used Caesar as a name or title.
Augustus and Livia	The accusation that Livia poisoned Augustus does not establish assassination as his cause of death. It belongs to the contested memory of succession.
Agrippina the Elder and Younger	The Elder was Germanicus's wife. The Younger was their daughter, Claudius's wife, and Nero's mother.
Drusus the Elder and Younger	The Elder was Tiberius's brother and died in 9 BCE. The Younger was Tiberius's son and died in 23 CE.
Nero and the fire	Ancient accounts preserve suspicion and accusation. Responsibility for starting the fire is not proved by the emperor's subsequent rebuilding or later infamy.
Boudica's final battlefield	Its location is unknown. A confident name on a modern battle diagram cannot resolve the absence of a secure identification.
Suetonius Paulinus and Suetonius the biographer	The former commanded against Boudica and later served Otho. The latter wrote the Lives of the Caesars in the following generation.
The Year of the Four Emperors	Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were not members of the Flavian dynasty. Vespasian established the Flavian house after defeating the final rival coalition.
The two Plinys	The Elder compiled Natural History and died during the Vesuvius eruption. The Younger wrote letters and governed under Trajan.
Julia Domna and Caracalla	She was his mother. Descriptions making her his stepmother and stories of marriage between them are distortions, not a reliable family history.
Elagabalus	The surviving sexual and gender-related allegations are intensely hostile. They cannot directly recover a modern identity category or an unmediated personal testimony.
Valerian's captivity	Capture by Shapur I is secure. Elaborate accounts of flaying or use as a mounting stool are not equally secure evidence.
Constantius I and II	Constantius I was Constantine's father. Constantius II was Constantine's son and Julian's predecessor.
Constantine I and III	Constantine I reigned in the early fourth century. Constantine III was proclaimed in Britain in 407 and fought for western power until 411.
The two Theodosii	Count Theodosius restored order in Britain and campaigned in Africa. His son Theodosius I became emperor in 379. Theodosius II was the grandson of Theodosius I and ruled in the fifth century.
The Valentinians	Valentinian I ruled from 364 to 375; Valentinian II was his younger son; Valentinian III was Galla Placidia's son and the western emperor from 425 to 455.
The two Gothic Theodorics	Theodoric I died fighting in Gaul in 451. Theodoric the Great conquered Italy and ruled there until 526.
Bonifatius and the Vandals	The story of an invitation explaining the loss of Africa is contested. A convenient betrayal narrative is not a complete account of migration, conquest, and Roman internal rivalry.
The sack of 410 and the events of 476	The first was a sack of Rome during Honorius's continuing reign. The second was a deposition in Italy while the eastern Roman state survived and Julius Nepos retained a western imperial claim.
Belisarius	He was not emperor. The story of a blinded general reduced to begging is a later legend, not a secure conclusion to his career.
Narses	The invitation of the Lombards is a later hostile explanation. His victories in Italy do not prove the story.
Khosrow I and II	Khosrow I was Justinian's contemporary. Khosrow II belongs to the later war against the empire of Heraclius, outside this compendium's main period.
Appearance and private motive	A reconstructed portrait does not establish complexion, eye color, exact features, or expression. Public conduct does not by itself reveal an individual's unrecorded thoughts.

The central rule throughout these dossiers is to preserve distinctions: between action and reputation, victory and settlement, office and practical power, family relationship and political loyalty, remembered speech and recoverable decision. These distinctions make the people more intelligible without making them less vivid.

The other guides to figures