Domitian

The Lives of the Twelve Caesars #12

by Suetonius

An analysis of Suetonius' account of the emperor Domitian. The book provides a detailed commentary on matters of historical importance in the text, together with a discussion of Suetonius' life. A comparison is offered between Suetonius' account and Dio's version. Latin sources are utilized.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Roman

kindle

First published January 23, 1996

About the author

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius (ca. 69/75 - after 130), was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum. Other works by Suetonius concern the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. A few of these books have partially survived, but many are entirely lost.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the natural death of his father Vespasian and his brother Titus, Domitian became emperor in 81 AD at age 30 and ruled until he was assassinated 15 years later. Of all Suetonius’s biographies of the 12 Caesars, his life of Domitian is one of the liveliest. Below are my comments coupled with quotes from the text.

“From that time forward, he was constantly engaged in plots against his brother, both publicly and privately; until, falling dangerously ill, he ordered all his attendants to leave him, under pretense of his being dead, before he really was so; and, at his decease, paid him no other honor than that of enrolling him amongst the gods; and he often, both in speeches and edicts, carped at his memory by sneers and insinuations. -------- This speaks oodles about Domitian’s character. I couldn’t imagine a more mean-spirited and small-minded view of life. Incidentally, I’ve had the misfortune of being around a couple of people with similar character traits – a most disagreeable experience.

“In the beginning of his reign, he used to spend daily an hour by himself in private, during which time he did nothing else but catch flies, and stick them through the body with a sharp pin. . . . During some time, there was in his administration a strange mixture of virtue and vice, until at last his virtues themselves degenerated into vices; being, as we may reasonably conjecture concerning his character, inclined to avarice through want, and to cruelty through fear.” ---------- There you have it – the soul of a sadist. Becoming Roman Emperor and spending your quiet hours torturing flies.

“He frequently entertained the people with most magnificent and costly shows, not only in the amphitheater, but the circus; where, besides the usual races with chariots drawn by two or four horses a-breast, he exhibited the representation of an engagement between both horse and foot, and a sea-fight in the amphitheater. The people were also entertained with the chase of wild beasts and the combat of gladiators, even in the night-time, by torch-light. Nor did men only fight in these spectacles, but women also.” ----------- The key word here is ‘entertainment’. Suetonius recognizes these pubic death-shows and war-circuses are primarily to entertain. Of course, the Romans loves to see displays of how they ruled the known world extending to the world of animals and nature but ultimately all displays were assessed in terms of their entertainment value. A kid of flesh-and-blood TV culture. How much has modern culture transcended such hankering after garish entertainments?

“But he did not long persevere in this course of clemency and justice, although he sooner fell into cruelty than into avarice. He put to death a scholar of Paris, the pantomimic though a minor, and then sick, only because, both in person and the practice of his art, he resembled his master; as he did likewise Hermogenes of Tarsus for some oblique reflections in his History; crucifying, besides, the scribes who had copied the work.” ---------- Goodness. Domitian tortured and put to death many men and women for flimsy, nonsensical reasons. Come on, Domitian, these people are humans not flies.

“He suffered no statues to be erected for him in the Capitol, unless they were of gold and silver, and of a certain weight.” ---------- Domitian was Roman Emperor from age 30 to 45, yet his emotional maturity remained that of a spoiled 15-year-old.

“As the time of the danger which he apprehended drew near, he became daily more and more disturbed in mind; insomuch that he lined the walls of the porticos in which he used to walk, with the stone called Phengites by the reflection of which he could see every object behind him.” ---------- Now this is a ugly combination: a man who is not only heartless and sadistic but also paranoid.

And, predictably in these days of the , Domitian was assassinated by conspirators. Which goes to show, if you are cruel and sadistic, even paranoids have enemies. In conclusion, here are Suetonius on the character of Domitian: “He was insatiable in his lusts, calling frequent commerce with women, as if it was a sort of exercise, bed-wrestling; and it was reported that he plucked the hair from his concubines, and swam about in company with the lowest prostitutes.” --------- Modern historians reject Suetonius’s representing Domitian as a cruel, paranoid tyrant; rather, those moderns see him as an efficient autocrat. My own sense is if half of what Suetonius relays about the emperor’s treatment of people is accurate, I’m with Suetonius.

[Ian Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Bristol Classical Press edition of Suetonius’ biography of the emperor Domitian is about 170 pages long but, like his dad Vespasian, Domitian gets only nine and a half pages of text for his life. The rest is a useful introduction, a very detailed commentary and a bibliography. The result is that what we learn about Domitian is very compressed and the commentary suggests that you can find out a lot more from other writers, with the caveat that they are usually writing later than Suetonius and are often even less reliable.
But then, what is reliable? I’m watching a series on Amazon Prime at the moment called “Those About To Die”. Domitian is one of the central characters. In the first few episodes of series one Vespasian dies and his elder son, Titus, becomes emperor. Domitian is cruel verging on psychopathic but he has a finger on the popular pulse. He is credited with the idea of building the Flavian Amphitheatre, which a millennium later became known as the Colosseum. He also adds an extra team – the Gold Faction – to the four traditional chariot racing teams. According to Suetonius, that seems to be correct, although apparently he also created a Purple Faction. Neither team survived his death. Another thing we see in the TV series is Domitian’s prowess as an archer. Suetonius mentions this, but also says Domitian was short-sighted.
What the commentary tells us is how much of Suetonius’ – and other writers’ – hostility towards Domitian is unfair and overdone. Tacitus is frequently cited as a writer – roughly contemporary with Suetonius – who lays it on a bit thick. According to the editor, Brian W Jones, one reason is because they are writing in the time of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, who benefited from Domitian’s murder. They therefore need to justify Domitian’s removal and the installation of his successor, Nerva, who didn’t last long before handing the imperial baton to Trajan. Domitian doesn’t seem to have had a male heir so if he had survived into old age there might well have been another civil war, so you could argue that his murder pre-empted a bloodbath. He also comes across as a pretty unappealing character. Lonely, secretive, stabbing flies with his pen…..Suetonius gives him very little credit for anything and the editor does a good job of showing how biased Suetonius is in the way he arranges his material and interprets Domitian’s behaviour.
I would recommend this edition to anyone who wants to learn more about Domitian. You don’t need to wade through all the notes but they are helpful in setting the scene and arguably do more to shine a light on Domitian’s psyche than Suetonius’ gossipy text does.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting lesson to take away from these Roman emperors was that most of the them didn't start out with cruelty, debauchery, but started out as benevolent rulers; but something about absolute power ends up changing the natures of how they perceive themselves as a cut above all the rest; also, there are feelings that lead with pride, narcissism, suspicion, lewd, carnal and depraved behaviors which brought not many of these emperors, but even the Roman Republic and the Empire into ruin.

[John Isles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thorough edition of quite a short life, the final one of Suetonius's Caesars, which with colleagues in a group on the LatinStudy email list (see https://www.quasillum.com/study/latin...) I recently finished translating into English. The contents include an introduction, the Latin text, an extensive commentary (which largely duplicates the one given in the Bristol Classical Press volume for the lives of the Flavian emperors), and a bibliography.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very short read with little added to the translation of Suetonius on Domitian. I will come back to it again, I'm sure, as a handy ready reference since I don't read Latin and resort to translations of works. I would need to read a few more translations to compare and contrast, to work out if this is indeed a credible translation.

[Lucia Eriksson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Live, laugh, Suetonius.

[Hanna Thulin · Rating 3 out of 5]

sjukt att han levde i fattigdom i början av sina år och sen blev en grym härskare…

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like a Springer show

[Patt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting documentation of these powerful men.
Why Nero or Calligula were not dethroned within a few years i will never understand the Romans seemed to be very forgiving of these dreadful men.