Transcript Document

“Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public
opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.”
Full Name: Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Birth: c. AD 69
Death: c. AD 122
Occupation: Roman biographer and antiquarian.
Suetonius’ family was one of the
knightly class and he was a friend
and protégé of Pliny the Younger. He
began to study law as a career, but
he soon abandoned it. After Pliny’s
death, he found a new patron,
Septicius Clarus, to whom he
dedicated one of his books.
Most of his writings were
antiquarian, dealing with Greek
pastimes, the history of Roman
spectacles and shows, oaths and
imprecations and their origins,
terminology of clothing, well-known
courtesans, physical defects, and the
growth of the civil service.
His De viris illustribus is divided into
short books on Roman poets,
orators, historians, grammarians and
rhetoricans, and perhaps
philosophers.
Very nearly all that is known about
the lives of Rome’s eminent authors
stems from his work. The lives of
Horace, Lucan, Terence and Virgil,
are known from writers who derived
their facts from Suetonius.
He entered the Imperial service,
holding posts of controller of the
Roman libraries, keeper of the
archives, and adviser to the
emperor on cultural matters. By 121
he was promoted to secretary of
the imperial correspondence, but
was later dismissed for the neglect
of court formality. After this, he
presumably devoted himself to
literary pursuits.
The biographies are organized by
topics: the emperors' family
background, career before
accession, public actions, private
life, appearance, personality, and
death. Though free with scandalous
gossip, they are largely silent on the
growth, administration, and defence
of the empire. Suetonius is free from
the bias of the senatorial class that
distorts much Roman historical
writing. His sketches of the habits
and appearance of the emperors are
invaluable, but he used
“characteristic anecdote” without
exhaustive enquiry into its
authenticity.