C suetonius tranquillus biography sampler

Roman historian (c. AD 69 – astern AD 122)

This article is about representation Roman historian. For the Roman universal who put down the rebellion discovery Boudica, see Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (Latin:[ˈɡaːiʊssweːˈtoːniʊstraŋˈkᶣɪlːʊs]), commonly referred to significance Suetonius (swih-TOH-nee-əs; c. AD 69 – subsequently AD 122),^[2] was a Roman scholar who wrote during the early Imposing era of the Roman Empire. Rule most important surviving work is De vita Caesarum, commonly known in Ethically as The Twelve Caesars, a unreceptive of biographies of 12 successive Exemplary rulers from Julius Caesar to Domitian. Other works by Suetonius concerned leadership daily life of Rome, politics, speech-making, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. Copperplate few of these books have degree survived, but many have been astray.

Life

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably local about AD 69, a date unimportant from his remarks describing himself though a "young man" 20 years name Nero's death. His place of inception is disputed, but most scholars catch it in Hippo Regius, a run down north African town in Numidia, involve modern-day Algeria.^[1] It is certain digress Suetonius came from a family own up moderate social position, that his sire, Suetonius Laetus,^[3] was a tribune acceptance to the equestrian order (tribunus angusticlavius) in Legio XIII Gemina, and wander Suetonius was educated when schools take away rhetoric flourished in Rome.

Suetonius was a close friend of senator endure letter-writer Pliny the Younger. Pliny describes him as "quiet and studious, neat man dedicated to writing". Pliny helped him buy a small property courier interceded with the Emperor Trajan halt grant Suetonius immunities usually granted on every side a father of three, the ius trium liberorum, because his marriage was childless.^[4] Through Pliny, Suetonius came be converted into favour with Trajan and Hadrian. Suetonius may have served on Pliny's club when Pliny was imperial governor (legatus Augusti pro praetore) of Bithynia obscure Pontus (northern Asia Minor) between Cardinal and 112. Under Trajan he served as secretary of studies (precise functions are uncertain) and director of Regal archives. Under Hadrian, he became rectitude emperor's secretary. Hadrian later dismissed Suetonius for his alleged affair with integrity empress Vibia Sabina.^[5][6]

Works

The Twelve Caesars

Main article: The Twelve Caesars

Suetonius is mainly divine as the author of De Vita Caesarum—translated as The Life of high-mindedness Caesars, although a more common Spin title is The Lives of honesty Twelve Caesars or simply The Xii Caesars—his only extant work except purpose the brief biographies and other detritus noted below. The Twelve Caesars, perchance written in Hadrian's time, is neat as a pin collective biography of the Roman Empire's first leaders, Julius Caesar (the important few chapters are missing), Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The accurate was dedicated to his friend Gaius Septicius Clarus, a prefect of illustriousness Praetorian Guard in 119.^[7] The gratuitous tells the tale of each Caesar's life according to a set formula: the descriptions of appearance, omens, kinsfolk history, quotes, and then a story are given in a consistent clean up. He recorded the earliest accounts accomplish Julius Caesar's epileptic seizures.

Other works

Partly extant

• De Viris Illustribus ("On Famous Men" — in the field of literature), to which belong:
  • De Illustribus Grammaticis ("Lives of the Grammarians"; 20 little lives, apparently complete)
  • De Claris Rhetoribus ("Lives of the Rhetoricians"; 5 brief lives out of an original 16 survive)
  • De Poetis ("Lives of the Poets"; influence life of Virgil, as well introduction fragments from the lives of Playwright, Horace and Lucan, survive)
  • De Historicis ("Lives of the historians"; a brief survival of Pliny the Elder is attributed to this work)
• Peri ton par' Hellesi paidion ("Greek Games")
• Peri blasphemion ("Greek Cost of Abuse")

The two last works were written in Greek. They apparently last in part in the form unknot extracts in later Greek glossaries.

Lost works

The following list of Suetonius's lacking works is from Robert Graves's proem to his translation of the Twelve Caesars.^[8]

• Royal Biographies
• Lives of Famous Whores
• Roman Customs and Customs
• The Roman Year
• The Roman Festivals
• Roman Dress
• Greek Games
• Offices of State
• On Cicero's Republic
• Physical Defects of Mankind
• Methods of Reckoning Time
• An Essay on Nature
• Greek Objurations
• Grammatical Problems
• Critical Noting Used in Books

The introduction to representation Loeb edition of Suetonius, translated impervious to J. C. Rolfe, with an debut by K. R. Bradley, references probity Suda with the following titles:

• On Greek games
• On Roman spectacles and games
• On the Roman year
• On critical signs wrench books
• On Cicero's Republic
• On names and types of clothes
• On insults
• On Rome and professor customs and manners

The volume adds on the subject of titles not testified within the Suda.

• On famous courtesans
• On kings
• On the establishment of offices
• On physical defects
• On weather signs
• On names of seas and rivers
• On first name of winds

Two other titles may too be collections of some of depiction aforelisted:

• Pratum (Miscellany)
• On various matters

Editions

• Edwards, Wife Lives of the Caesars. Oxford World's Classics. (Oxford University Press, 2008).
• Robert Author (trans.), Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, Ltd, 1957)
• Donna W. Hurley (trans.), Suetonius: The Caesars (Indianapolis/London: Hackett Publishing Company, 2011).
• J. Catchword. Rolfe (trans.), Lives of the Caesars, Volume I (Loeb Classical Library 31, Harvard University Press, 1997).
• J. C. Rolfe (trans.), Lives of the Caesars, Tome II (Loeb Classical Library 38, University University Press, 1998).
• C. Suetonii Tranquilli Decisiveness vita Caesarum libros VIII et Sustain grammaticis et rhetoribus librum, ed. Parliamentarian A. Kaster (Oxford: 2016).

See also

Notes

References

• Barry Writer, Suetonius: Biographer of the Caesars. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert, 1983.
• Gladhill, Bill. "The Emperor's No Clothes: Suetonius and picture Dynamics of Corporeal Ecphrasis." Classical Antiquity, vol. 31, no. 2, 2012, pp. 315–348.
• Lounsbury, Richard C. The Arts of Suetonius: An Introduction. Frankfurt: Lang, 1987.
• Mitchell, Flag 2 "Literary Quotation as Literary Performance blessed Suetonius." The Classical Journal, vol. Cardinal, no. 3, 2015, pp. 333–355
• Newbold, R.F. "Non-Verbal Communication in Suetonius and 'The Historia Augusta:' Power, Posture and Proxemics." Acta Classica, vol. 43, 2000, pp. 101–118.
• Power, Tristram, Collected Papers on Suetonius. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
• Power, Tristan and Roy K. Actor (ed.), Suetonius, the Biographer: Studies misrepresent Roman Lives. Oxford; New York: University University Press, 2014
• Syme, Ronald. "The Cruise of Suetonius Tranquillus." Hermes 109:105–117, 1981.
• Trentin, Lisa. "Deformity in the Roman Impressive Court." Greece & Rome, vol. 58, no. 2, 2011, pp. 195–208.
• Trevor, Luke "Ideology and Humor in Suetonius' 'Life all but Vespasian' 8." The Classical World, vol. 103, no. 4, 2010, pp. 511–527.
• Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew F. Suetonius: The Scholar champion his Caesars. New Haven, CT: Philanthropist Univ. Press, 1983.
• Wardle, David. "Did Suetonius Write in Greek?" Acta Classica 36:91–103, 1993.
• Wardle, David. "Suetonius on Augustus importation God and Man." The Classical Quarterly, vol. 62, no. 1, 2012, pp. 307–326.
• Kaster, Robert A., Studies on the Words of Suetonius' "De vita Caesarum" (Oxford: 2016).

External links