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Biography & MemoirsThe Lives of the Twelve Caesars, CompleteSuetoniusThe Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete

The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete

Suetonius

Biography & MemoirsEnglish
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Suetonius tells the lives of the first twelve rulers of imperial Rome, from Julius Caesar and Augustus through Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero to the…

Catalogue details

Author
Suetonius
Category
Biography & Memoirs
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

Suetonius tells the lives of the first twelve rulers of imperial Rome, from Julius Caesar and Augustus through Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero to the brief reigns of the year of four emperors and the Flavians, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. He arranges each life by topic rather than by date: ancestry, career, public deeds, private habits, appearance and death. He loves telling details: Caesar's baldness, the superstitions of Augustus, Caligula's plan to make his horse a consul, Nero singing while Rome burned, and Vespasian's dying joke that he must be turning into a god.

Context and significance

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was for a time a secretary to the emperor Hadrian, with access to the imperial archives, and wrote the book around AD 121. Its gossip has shaped the popular image of the Caesars ever since. This translation is by Alexander Thomson, revised by T. Forester. A darker and more serious view of the same age is Tacitus's Histories.

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