Junius Tiberianus, the prefect of the city, an illustrious man and one to be named only with a prefix of deep respect, took me up into his carriage, that is to say, his official coach. There his mind being now at leisure, relaxed and freed from law-pleas and public business, he engaged in much conversation all the way from the Palatine Hill to the Gardens of Varius, his theme being chiefly the lives of the emperors. And when we had reached the Temple of the Sun, consecrated by the Emperor Aurelian, he asked me who had written down the record of the life of that prince. When I replied that I had read none in Latin, though several in Greek, that revered man poured forth in the following words the sorrow that his groan implied: "Shall the Deified Aurelian, that most famous of princes, that most firm of rulers, who restored the whole world to the sway of Rome, be unknown to posterity? God prevent such madness! And yet, if I am not mistaken, we possess the written journal of that great man and also his wars recorded in detail in the manner of a history, and these I should like you to procure and set forth in order, adding thereto all that pertains to his life. All these things you may learn in your zeal for research from the linen books, for he gave instructions that in these all that he did each day should be written down. I will arrange, moreover, that the Ulpian Library shall provide you with the linen books themselves. It would be my wish that you write a work on Aurelian, representing him, to the best of your ability, just as he really was."〔Historia Augusta, ''Life of Aurelian'', I:1-8〕