SOURCE: Jones, Christopher. “The Emperor and the Giant.” Classical Philology 95, no. 4 (October 2000): 476-81.

In the following essay, Jones argues that a passage from Philostratus's Heroikos can help identify an emperor mentioned in a treatise by Pausanias; the critic claims that the man described is in fact Lucius Verus.

A passage of the periegete Pausanias mentions an “emperor (βασιλεύs) of the Romans” who discovered, or caused to be discovered, the bones of a giant in the bed of the river Orontes. Though the identification of the emperor has been discussed inconclusively for well over a century, it involves the history and topography of Antioch, one of the great cities of antiquity, and is therefore more than a mere puzzle. The present study argues that a passage of Philostratus' Heroicus, noticed in this connection but not read with sufficient care, may help to solve the problem.¹

Pausanias' testimony can be...