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The Twelve Caesars is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. The Twelve Caesars, also known as Lives of the Caesars (Latin: De vita Caesarum), which was written in 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, was the most popular work of Hadrian's personal secretary, Suetonius, and is the largest among his surviving writings. It was dedicated to a friend, the Praetorian prefect Gaius Septicius Clarus, in 119.

The Twelve Caesars was considered very significant in antiquity and remains a main source on Roman history. The book discusses the significant and critical period of the Principate from the end of the Republic to the reign of Domitian; comparisons are often made with Tacitus whose surviving works document a similar period.

Critical approaches: Reliability

Suetonius used the imperial archives to research eyewitness accounts, information, and other evidence to produce the book. He also quotes from Gaius Asinius Pollio, Cremutius Cordus and the Acts of Augustus.

However, critics say the book is founded on gossip and citations of historians who had lived in the time of the early emperors, rather than on primary sources of that time. The book can be described as very racy, packed with gossip, dramatic and sometimes amusing. There are times the author subjectively expresses his opinion and knowledge.

Though he was never a senator, Suetonius took the side of the Senate in most conflicts with the princeps, as well as the senators' views of the emperor. This resulted in biases, both conscious and unconscious. Suetonius lost access to the official archives shortly after beginning his work. He was forced to rely on second-hand accounts when it came to Claudius (with the exception of Augustus' letters which had been gathered earlier) and does not quote the emperor.

Despite this, it provides valuable information on the heritage, personal habits/lives and political careers of the first Roman Emperors. It mentions details that other sources do not. For example, Suetonius is the main source on the life of Caligula, his uncle Claudius, and the heritage of Vespasian (the relevant sections of the Annals by his friend and contemporary Tacitus being lost). Suetonius made one reference in this work to "Chrestus", which may refer to "Christ". See Historicity of Jesus.

Influence on later literature

The Twelve Caesars served as a model for a much less well-informed sequel, the anonymous Historia Augusta, a collective biography of Roman emperors and usurpers of the second and third centuries. In the ninth century Einhard modelled himself on Suetonius in writing the Life of Charlemagne. Robert Graves names The Twelve Caesars as one of his major sources for I Claudius and Claudius the God (dramatized by the BBC). Graves also made a widely read translation of The Twelve Caesars, first published in Penguin Classics in 1957.

Constituent works

Life of Julius Caesar

The first few chapters of this section are missing. Suetonius first describes Caesar's conquests. He refers to Caesar's famous statement, "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered). He mentions Caesar's war against Pompey the Great, including a comment made by Caesar as Pompey retreated after nearly imposing on Caesar his only defeat, "That man does not know how to win a war." He mentions Caesar being captured by pirates and, after being released, following through on his promise to find and kill them.

Suetonius describes Caesar's success at winning the loyalty of his soldiers. He referred to them as "comrades" instead of "soldiers." When one of his legions took heavy losses, he vowed not to trim his beard or hair until he had avenged their deaths. He refers to one soldier, after having his hand cut off in a naval battle, boarding the ship and subduing the crew using only his shield. Suetonius also describes Caesar crossing the Rubicon River, the border between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul, on his way to conquer Gaul.

Next, Suetonius describes Caesar's reforms after returning from abroad. Suetonius mentions that Caesar had planned next on invading and conquering the Parthian Empire, but was unable to do so because of his assassination.

Suetonius then describes Caesar himself. He says that Caesar was bald and wore a senator's tunic with an orange belt. Caesar apparently wore very loose clothes. The dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla once commented about Caesar, "Beware the boy with the loose clothes." Caesar also had an aversion to being called a king.

Finally, Suetonius describes Caesar's assassination. A few nights before his assassination, Caesar was visiting a friend. A discussion broke out regarding the best way to die. Caesar said he wanted a sudden and spectacular death. Caesar was also a believer in omens and in the interpretation of dreams. Caesar and his wife both had nightmares the night before his assassination, which Suetonius (himself a believer in dreams and omens) believes foretold the assassination. On his way to the Senate House on the day he was assassinated, Caesar was given a document describing the entire assassination plot. Caesar took the document and added it to his stack of other documents, which he was planning on reading later, but never did. Suetonius says that upon being stabbed, Caesar reproached Brutus, "You too, my child?"

Life of Augustus

In this section, Suetonius first describes the military victories of Augustus, and his victorious civil wars, including the final one against Mark Antony that ended with the Battle of Actium. Most of the rest of the section is devoted to Augustus as a person. He mentions the conflicts between Augustus and his daughter, Julia. Augustus banished Julia to an island and considered having her executed. He would curse his enemies by saying that they should have "a wife and children like mine." He says that for most of his life, Augustus lived in a simple home. Suetonius also devotes a fair bit of time to describing certain omens and dreams that predicted the birth of Augustus. One was related to his mother being a virgin, and impregnated with Augustus by a god. Another relates to dreams of Senators during the Consulship of Cicero about a king who would be born and who would rescue the Republic, which happened at the time Augustus was born. Suetonius even suggests, that Julius Caesar decided to make Augustus (then Octavian) his heir after seeing an omen related to him while in battle in Spain.

Suetonius says that Augustus only suffered two military defeats, both in Germany. The first was inconsequential. During the second, the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, three Roman Legions were wiped out by Germanic barbarians due to poor planning by the Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus. According to Suetonius, this battle "almost wrecked the empire." After news of the battle reached Rome, Augustus pounded his head on a wall over and over, repeating, Quintili Vare, legiones redde! ('Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!')

Life of Tiberius

Suetonius describes Tiberius's early career. He describes how Tiberius retired at a young age to Greece. According to Suetonius, Augustus had two sons, both possible heirs to the throne. But both died. Augustus therefore adopted Tiberius as his heir.

Tiberius, before becoming emperor, fought several wars valiantly. When Augustus died, the throne passed on to Tiberius. Suetonius describes Augustus's last will, in which he indicated that Tiberius was not Augustus's ideal successor, and seems to suggest that Tiberius was not as good a leader as Caesar or Augustus.

Life of Caligula

Life of Claudius

Suetonius paints Claudius as a ridiculous figure, belittling many of his acts and attributing the objectively good works to his retinue.Scramuzza, p. 29 Thus the conception of Claudius as the weak fool, controlled by those he supposedly ruled, was preserved for the ages. Claudius’s dining habits figure in the biography, notably his immoderate greed and his affection for the city taverns, on which several other emperors attempted to impose tight regulations.

Life of Nero

Suetonius portrays the life of Nero in a similar fashion to that of Caligula - It begins with a recounting of how Nero assumed the throne ahead of Claudius son Brittanicus and then descends into a recounting of various atrocities the young emperor allegedly performed. It is in Suetonius we find the beginnings of the legend that Nero "fiddled as rome burns" as he describes how Nero, whilst watching the fires, exclaimed how beautiful they were and sang an epic poem about the sack of Troy whilst accompanying himself on the lyre.

Life of Galba

Life of Otho

Life of Vitellius

Life of Vespasian

Life of Titus

Life of Domitian

Notes

Complete editions and translations

  • Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, The Twelve Caesars tr. Robert Graves. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957.
  • C. Suetoni Tranquilli opera, vol. I: De vita Caesarum libri VIII ed. Maximilianus Ihm. Leipzig: Teubner, 1908.
  • Suetonius, with an English translation by J. C. Rolfe. London: Heinemann, 1913-4.

Bibliography

  • C. Suetoni Tranquilli Divus Vespasianus ed. A. W. Braithwaite. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927.
  • C. Suetoni Tranquilli Divus Iulius of Julius Caesar ed. H. E. Butler, M. Cary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927. Reissued with new introduction, bibliography and additional notes by G.B. Townend. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1982.
  • Suetonius, Divus Augustus ed. John M. Carter. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1982.
  • A. Dalby, 'Dining with the Caesars' in Food and the memory: papers of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2000 ed. Harlan Walker (Totnes: Prospect Books, 2001) pp. 62-88.
  • Suetonius, Domitian ed. Brian W. Jones. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1996.
  • Suetonius, Tiberius ed. Hugh Lindsay. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1995.
  • Suetonius, Caligula ed. Hugh Lindsay. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1993.
  • Hans Martinet, C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Divus Titus: Kommentar. Königstein am Taunus: Hain, 1981.
  • Suetonius, Claudius ed. J. Mottershead. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1986.
  • Suetonius, Galba, Otho, Vitellius ed. Charles L. Murison. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1992.
  • Scramuzza
  • A. Wallace-Hadrill, Suetonius: the scholar and his Caesars. London: Duckworth, 1983.
  • D. Wardle, Suetonius' Life of Caligula: a commentary. Brussels: Latomus, 1994.
  • Suetonius, Nero ed. B.H. Warmington. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1999.

External links

biographies | Latin biographies | 2nd century books

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Lives of the Twelve Caesars".

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