 Another contemporary of Elagabalus was Herodian , who was a minor Roman civil servant who lived from c . 170 until 240 . His work , History of the Roman Empire since Marcus Aurelius , commonly abbreviated as Roman History , is an eyewitness account of the reign of Commodus until the beginning of the reign of Gordian III . His work largely overlaps with Dio 's own Roman History , but both texts seem to be independently consistent with each other . 
