Parents Suetonius Laetus Died 130 AD, Italy | Name Gaius Tranquillus Role Historian | |
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Full name Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus Books The Twelve Caesars, Divus Augustus, Lives of the Caesars - The: the, Le vite dei dodici Cesari, La vita di Caligola | ||
Similar Tacitus, Cassius Dio, Plutarch | ||
Vitellius - Lives of the Twelve Caesars - Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus ([ˈɡa:jjʊs sʊ.e:'to:ni.ʊs traŋˈkᶣɪllʊs]), 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.
Contents
- Vitellius Lives of the Twelve Caesars Suetonius
- The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS Part 12 Full Audio Book
- Life
- The Twelve Caesars
- Partly extant
- Lost works
- Editions
- References
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.
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS Part 1/2 | Full Audio Book
Life
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born in about 69 AD, a date deduced from his remarks describing himself as a "young man" twenty years after Nero's death. His place of birth is disputed, but most scholars place it in Hippo Regius, a small north African town in modern-day Numidia. It is certain that Suetonius came from a family of moderate social position, that his father, Suetonius Laetus, was a tribune of equestrian rank (tribunus angusticlavius) in the Thirteenth Legion, and that Suetonius was educated when schools of rhetoric flourished in Rome.
Suetonius was a close friend of senator and letter-writer Pliny the Younger. Pliny describes him as "quiet and studious, a man dedicated to writing." Pliny helped him buy a small property and interceded with the Emperor Trajan to grant Suetonius immunities usually granted to a father of three, the ius trium liberorum, because his marriage was childless. Through Pliny, Suetonius came into favour with Trajan and Hadrian. Suetonius may have served on Pliny’s staff when Pliny was Proconsul of Bithynia Pontus (northern Asia Minor) between 110 and 112. Under Trajan he served as secretary of studies (precise functions are uncertain) and director of Imperial archives. Under Hadrian, he became the Emperor's secretary. But, Hadrian later dismissed Suetonius for the latter's allegedly excessive informality with the empress Sabina.
The Twelve Caesars
He is mainly remembered as the author of De Vita Caesarum—translated as The Life of the Caesars although a more common English title is The Lives of the Twelve Caesars or simply The Twelve Caesars—his only extant work except for the brief biographies and other fragments noted below. The Twelve Caesars, probably written in Hadrian's time, is a collective biography of the Roman Empire's first leaders, Julius Caesar (the first few chapters are missing), Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The book was dedicated to a friend Gaius Septicius Clarus, a prefect of the Praetorian Guard in 119. The work tells the tale of each Caesar's life according to a set formula: the descriptions of appearance, omens, family history, quotes, and then a history are given in a consistent order for each Caesar.
Partly extant
The two last works were written in Greek. They apparently survive in part in the form of extracts in later Greek glossaries.
Lost works
The below listed lost works of Suetonius are from the Foreword written by Robert Graves in his translation of the Twelve Caesars.
The introduction to Loeb edition of Suetonius, translated by J. C. Rolfe, with an introduction by K. R. Bradley, references The Suda with the following titles:
The volume then goes on to add other titles not testified within the Suda.
Two other titles may also be collections of some of the aforelisted: