Suetonius

by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

Suetonius, a Roman historian, was the author of "The Lives of the Caesars". This biography sets the historian's career and his method of dealing with his subject matter in the context of Roman society in the early Empire, and draws a picture of the coherence of Suetonius's life, appointments, scholarship and literary activities. Suetonius is presented as a man of learning, rather than as a failed narrative historian. This portrait takes account of recent evidence concerning his life and seeks to clarify the character of "The Lives of the Caesars" as a description of emperors and Roman imperial society by a scholarly biographer who himself was in the service of a scholarly Caesar - the Emperor Hadrian.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Classical Studies

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[James Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Sets a reappraisal of Suetonius in the context of a reasonable reconstruction of Suetonius's other works and in his cultural milieu as a grammarian and antiquarian. Good on Suetonius, but also illuminates elements of the Caesars themselves. Sits rather well with Edwards on political invective and the values applied to virtues and vices The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome. Well worth a read.