Background
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born in about 69 AD in Rome.
(An essential primary source on Roman history and a fascin...)
An essential primary source on Roman history and a fascinating achievement of scholarship covering a critical period in the Empire As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, the scholar Suetonius had access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eyewitness accounts) to produce one of the most colourful biographical works in history. The Twelve Caesars chronicles the public careers and private lives of the men who wielded absolute power over Rome, from the foundation of the empire under Julius Caesar and Augustus, to the decline into depravity and civil war under Nero and the recovery that came with his successors. A masterpiece of observation, anecdote and detailed physical description, The Twelve Caesars presents us with a gallery of vividly drawnand all too humanindividuals. James B. Rives has sensitively updated Robert Graves's now classic translation, reinstating Latin terms and updating vocabulary while retaining the liveliness of the original. This edition contains a new chronology, further reading, glossaries, maps, notes and an introduction discussing Suetonius' life and works. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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(The Lives of the Caesars include the biographies of Juliu...)
The Lives of the Caesars include the biographies of Julius Caesar and the eleven subsequent emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitelius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian. Suetonius composed his material from a variety of sources, without much concern for their reliability. His biographies consist of the ancestry and career of each emperor in turn; however, his interest is not so much analytical or historical, but anecdotal and salacious which gives rise to a lively and provocative succession of portraits. For example, the account of Julius Caesar does not simply mention his crossing of the Rubicon and his assassination, but draws attention to his dark piercing eyes and attempts to conceal his baldness. The life of Caligula presents a vivid picture of the emperor's grotesque appearance, his waywardness, and his insane cruelties. The format and style of Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars was to set the tone for biography throughout western literature--his work remains thoroughly readable and full of interest. Indeed, it was Robert Graves's primary reference source when he was writing I, Claudius, and those who have read his book will enjoy the original accounts as set down here. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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(Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius ...)
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius (c. 69 after 122 AD), was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum. He recorded the earliest accounts of Julius Caesar's epileptic seizures. Other works by Suetonius concern the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. A few of these books have partially survived, but many have been lost. Younger brother of Titus, second son of Vespasian, and third emperor of the Flavian dynasty. Recorded as having gained the throne through deliberately letting his brother die of a fever. During Titus' rule he had caused dissent and had sought the throne through rebellion. From the beginning of his reign Domitian ruled as a complete autocrat, partly because of his lack of political skills, but also because of his own nature. Having led a solitary early life, Domitian was suspicious of those around him, a difficult situation which gradually got worse. Domitian's provincial government was so carefully supervised that Suetonius admits that the Empire enjoyed a period of unusually good government and security. Domitian's policy of employing members of the equestrian class rather than his own freedmen for some important posts was also an innovation. The Empires finances, which the recklessness of Titus had thrown into confusion, were restored despite building projects and foreign wars. Deeply religious, Domitian built temples and established ceremonies and even tried to enforce public morality by law. Domitian personally took part in battles in Germany. The latter part of his reign saw increasing trouble on the lower Danube from the Dacians, a tribe occupying roughly what is today Romania. Led by their king Decebalus, the Dacians invaded the Empire in 85 AD. The war ended in 88 in a compromise peace which left Decebalus as king and gave him Roman "foreign aid" in return for his promise to help defend the frontier. One of the reasons Domitian failed to crush the Dacians was a revolt in Germany by the governor Antonius Saturninus. The revolt was quickly suppressed, but from then on, Suetonius informs us, Domitian's already suspicious temper grew steadily worse. Those closest to him suffered the most, and after a reign of terror at the imperial court Domitian was murdered in 96 AD; the group that killed him, according to Suetonius, included his wife, Domitia Longina, and possibly his successor, Nerva. The Senate, which had always hated him, quickly condemned his memory and repealed his acts, and Domitian joined the ranks of the tyrants of considerable accomplishments but evil memory. He was the last of the Flavian emperors, and his murder marked the beginning of the period of the so-called Five Good Emperors.
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Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born in about 69 AD in Rome.
He was the contemporary of Tacitus and the younger Pliny, and his literary work seems to have been chiefly done in the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian (A. D. 98-138). His father was military tribune in the XIIIth legion.
He began life as a teacher of rhetoric and an advocate. To us he is known as the biographer of the twelve Caesars (including Julius) down to Domitian. The lives are valuable as covering a good deal of ground where we are without the guidance of Tacitus. As Suetonius was the emperor Hadrian's private secretary (magister epistolarum), he must have had access to many important documents in the Imperial archives, e. g. the decrees and transactions of the senate. In addition to written and official documents, he picked up in society a mass of information and anecdotes, which, though of doubtful authenticity, need not be regarded as mere inventions of his own. They give a very good idea of the kind of court gossip prevalent in Rome at the time. He was a friend and correspondent of the younger Pliny, who when appointed governor of Bithynia took Suetonius with him. Pliny also recommended him to the favourable notice of the emperor Trajan, "as a most upright, honourable, and learned man, whom persons often remember in their wills because of his merits, " and he begs that he may be made legally capable of inheriting these bequests, for which under a special enactment Suetonius was, as a childless married man, disqualified. Hadrian's biographer, Aelius Spartianus, tells us that Suetonius was deprived of his private secretaryship because he had not been sufficiently observant of court etiquette towards the emperor's wife during Hadrian's absence in Britain.
The Lives of the Caesars has always been a popular work. It is rather a chronicle than a history. It gives no picture of the society of the time, no hints as to the general character and tendencies of the period. It is the emperor who is always before us, and yet the portrait is drawn without any real historical judgment or insight. It is the personal anecdotes, several of which are very amusing, that give the lives their chief interest; but the author panders rather too much to a taste for scandal and gossip. None the less he throws considerable light on an important period, and next to Tacitus and Dio Cassius is the chief (sometimes the only) authority. The language is clear and simple. The work was continued by Marius Maximus (3rd century), who wrote a history of the emperors from Nerva to Elagabalus (now lost).
Suetonius was a voluminous writer. His wprks were:
De Viris Illustribus ("On Famous Men" — in the field of literature), to which belong:
De Illustribus Grammaticis ("Lives of the Grammarians"; 20 brief lives, apparently complete);
De Claris Rhetoribus ("Lives of the Rhetoricians"; 5 brief lives out of an original 16 survive);
De Poetis ("Lives of the Poets"; the life of Virgil, as well as fragments from the lives of Terence, Horace and Lucan, survive);
De Historicis ("Lives of the historians"; a brief life of Pliny the Elder is attributed to this work);
Peri ton par' Hellesi paidion ("Greek Games");
Peri blasphemion ("Greek Terms of Abuse").
(An essential primary source on Roman history and a fascin...)
(The Lives of the Caesars include the biographies of Juliu...)
(Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius ...)
