Instead, Suetonius tells his readers that he has carefully organized the stories “by categories”. Although Suetonius usually begins with an emperor’s family and upbringing, the bulk of each Life consists of an assortment of memorable, and sometimes salacious, anecdotes about an emperor’s public conduct and private life.īut this is no mere haphazard catalogue of sex and corruption. The structure of the individual biographies has often puzzled modern readers, who expect Suetonius to tell his story in a linear fashion from birth to death.

69 (Galba, Otho, Vitellius), and the Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, Domitian). Instead The Twelve Caesars includes the Julio-Claudians, Rome’s first imperial dynasty (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero), three short-lived emperors during the civil wars of A.D. Political expediency meant that Suetonius wisely avoided writing about Hadrian.

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.Bust of Hadrian in the Musei Capitolini. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. This edition contains a new chronology, further reading, glossaries, maps, notes and an introduction discussing Suetonius' life and works.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. Rives has sensitively updated Robert Graves's now classic translation, reinstating Latin terms and updating vocabulary while retaining the liveliness of the original. A masterpiece of observation, anecdote and detailed physical description, The Twelve Caesars presents us with a gallery of vividly drawnand all too humanindividuals. 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.

An essential primary source on Roman history and a fascinating achievement of scholarship covering a critical period in the EmpireĪs 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 by Suetonius