Lives of the Twelve Caesars
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The Roman Empire at its greatest extent under the rule of Trajan, c. 117. |
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| National Motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus |
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| Official languages | Latin, Greek | |
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| Government | Monarchy with Republican forms, later Autocracy | |
| Head of state | Emperor, nominally also two consuls; after the division there was a Western Roman Emperor and an Eastern Roman Emperor | |
| Head of government | Nominally, the two consuls were equal co-heads of government. One of the consuls might be the emperor. | |
| Deliberative Body | Roman Senate | |
| Area - Total - % water |
1st before collapse 2.3 million square miles (5 900 000 km²) at its height ?% |
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| Population | estimates vary from 55 million to over 120 million | |
| Establishment | September 2, 31 BC | |
| Dissolution | Division between the Western Roman Empire which ended on the 4 September 476, and the Eastern Roman Empire, widely known as Byzantine Empire, conquered on 29 May 1453. | |
| First emperor | Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) | |
| Last Emperor | Theodosius I (379-395) last ruler over the whole empire, subsequent final division. Last Emperor of the West: Romulus Augustus (475-476) or Julius Nepos claiming sovereignty over the Western Roman Empire, until his death in 480. Last Emperor of the East: Constantine XI (1449-1453). | |
| Preceding state | Roman Republic | |
| Succeeding states | Western Roman Empire, and Eastern Roman Empire (widely known as Byzantine Empire). | |
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| See also | ||
The Twelve Caesars is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. The Twelve Caesars, also known as Lives of the Caesars (Latin: De vita Caesarum), which was written in 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, was the most popular work of Hadrian's personal secretary, Suetonius, and is the largest among his surviving writings. It was dedicated to a friend, the Praetorian prefect Gaius Septicius Clarus, in 119.
The Twelve Caesars was considered very significant in antiquity and remains a main source on Roman history. The book discusses the significant and critical period of the Principate from the end of the Republic to the reign of Domitian; comparisons are often made with Tacitus whose surviving works document a similar period.
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[edit] Critical approaches: Reliability
Suetonius used the imperial archives to research eyewitness accounts, information, and other evidence to produce the book. He also quotes from Gaius Asinius Pollio, Cremutius Cordus and the Acts of Augustus.
However, critics say the book is founded on gossip and citations of historians who had lived in the time of the early emperors, rather than on primary sources of that time. The book can be described as very racy, packed with gossip, dramatic and sometimes amusing. There are times the author subjectively expresses his opinion and knowledge.
Though he was never a senator, Suetonius took the side of the Senate in most conflicts with the princeps, as well as the senators' views of the emperor. This resulted in biases, both conscious and unconscious. Suetonius lost access to the official archives shortly after beginning his work. He was forced to rely on second-hand accounts when it came to Claudius (with the exception of Augustus' letters which had been gathered earlier) and does not quote the emperor.
Despite this, it provides valuable information on the heritage, personal habits/lives and political careers of the first Roman Emperors. It mentions details that other sources do not. For example, Suetonius is the main source on the life of Caligula, his uncle Claudius, and the heritage of Vespasian (the relevant sections of the Annals by his friend and contemporary Tacitus being lost). Suetonius made a reference in this work to "Chrestus", which may refer to "Christ". During the book on Nero, Suetonius mentions a sect known as the Christians. See Historicity of Jesus.
[edit] Influence on later literature
Lives of the Caesars served as a model for the biographies of 2nd century emperors compiled by Marius Maximus. This collection, apparently entitled Caesares, does not survive, but it was a source for a later biographical collection, known as Historia Augusta, which now forms a kind of sequel to Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars. The Historia Augusta is a collective biography, partly fictionalized, of Roman emperors and usurpers of the second and third centuries.
In the ninth century Einhard modelled himself on Suetonius in writing the Life of Charlemagne, even borrowing phrases from Suetonius' physical description of Augustus in his own description of the character and appearance of Charlemagne. Robert Graves names The Twelve Caesars as one of his major sources for I Claudius and Claudius the God (dramatized by the BBC). Graves also made a widely read translation of The Twelve Caesars, first published in Penguin Classics in 1957.
[edit] Constituent works
[edit] Life of Julius Caesar
The first few chapters of this section are missing. Suetonius begins this section by describing Caesar's conquests, especially in Gaul and his Civil War against Pompey the Great. Several times Suetonius quotes Caesar. Suetonius includes Caesar's famous decree, "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered). In discussing Caesar's war against Pompey the Great, Suetonius quotes Caesar during a battle that Caesar nearly lost, "That man (Pompey) does not know how to win a war."
Suetonius describes an incident that would become one of the most memorable of the entire book. Caesar was captured by pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. Caesar engaged in debate and in philosophical discussion with the pirates while in captivity. He also promised that one day he would find them and crucify them (this was the standard punishment for piracy during this time). When told by the pirates that he would be held for a ransom of 20 talents of gold, Caesar laughed, and said that he must be worth at least 50 talents. Just as he had promised, after being released, Caesar captured the pirates and crucified them.
It is from Suetonius that we first learn of another incident during the life of Julius Caesar. While serving as governor in Spain, Caesar once visited a statue of Alexander the Great. Upon viewing this statue, Suetonius reports that Caesar fell to his knees, weeping. When asked what was wrong, Caesar sighed, and said that by the time Alexander was his (Caesar's) age, Alexander had conquered the whole world.
Suetonius describes Caesar's gift at winning the loyalty and admiration of his soldiers. Suetonius mentions Caesar commonly referring to them as "comrades" instead of "soldiers." When one of Caesar's legions took heavy losses in a battle, Caesar vowed not to trim his beard or hair until he had avenged the deaths of his soldiers. Suetonius describes an incident during a naval battle. One of Caesar's soldiers had his hand cut off. Despite the injury, this soldier still managed to board an enemy ship and subdue its crew. Suetonius mentions Caesar's famous crossing of the Rubicon River, (the border between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul), on his way to Rome to start a Civil War against Pompey and ultimately seize power.
Suetonius later describes Caesar's major reforms upon defeating Pompey and seizing power. One such reform was the modification of the Roman calendar. The calendar at the time had already used the same system of solar years and lunar months that our current calendar uses. Caesar updated the calendar so as to minimize the number of lost days due to the prior calendar’s imprecision regarding the exact amount of time in a solar year. Caesar also renamed the fifth month (also the month of his birth) in the Roman calendar July, in his honor (Roman months started in March, not January as they do under the current calendar). Suetonius says that Caesar had planned on invading and conquering the Parthian Empire. These plans were not carried out due to Caesar's assassination.
Suetonius then includes a description of Caesar's appearance and personality. Suetonius says that Caesar was semi-bald. Due to embarrassment regarding his premature baldness, Caesar combed his hair over and forward so as to hide this baldness. Caesar wore a senator's tunic with an orange belt. Caesar is described as routinely wearing loose clothes. Suetonius quotes the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla as saying, "Beware the boy with the loose clothes, for one day he will mean the ruin of the Republic" This quote referred to Caesar, as Caesar had been a young man during Sulla's Social War and subsequent dictatorship. Suetonius describes Caesar as taking steps so that others would not refer to him as king. Political enemies at the time had claimed that Caesar wanted to bring back the much reviled Roman Kingdom.
Finally, Suetonius describes Caesar's assassination. Shortly before his assassination, Caesar told a friend that he wanted to die a sudden and spectacular death. Suetonius believes that several omens predicted the assassination. One such omen was a vivid dream Caesar had the night before his assassination.
The day of the assassination, Suetonius claims that Caesar was given a document describing the entire plot. Caesar took the document, but did not have a chance to read it before he was assassinated.
Suetonius says that upon being stabbed, Caesar reproached the conspirator Brutus, asking "And you, my child?" This specific wording varies slightly from the more famous quote, "Even you, Brutus?" from William Shakespeare’s play "Julius Caesar."
[edit] Life of Augustus
Before he died, Julius Caesar had designated his great nephew, Gaius Octavius (who would be named Augustus by the Roman Senate after becoming emperor) as his adopted son and heir. Octavius' mother, Atia, was the daughter of Caesar's sister, Julia Caesaris.
Octavian (who had not yet been named Augustus by the Roman Senate) finished the civil wars started by his great-uncle, Julius Caesar. One by one, Augustus defeated the legions of the other generals who wanted to succeed Julius Caesar as the master of the Roman world. Suetonius includes descriptions of these civil wars, including the final one against Mark Antony that ended with the Battle of Actium. Antony had been Octavian's last surviving rival, but committed suicide after his defeat at Actium. It was after this victory in 31 BC that Octavian became master of the Roman world and imperator (or emperor). His declaration of the end of the Civil Wars that had started under Julius Caesar marked the historic beginning of the Roman Empire, and the Pax Romana. Octavian at this point was given the title "Augustus" (meaning "the venerable") by the Roman Senate.
After describing the military campaigns of Augustus, Suetonius describes his personal life. A large section of the entire book is devoted to this. This is partly due to the fact that after Actium, the reign of Augustus was mostly peaceful. It has also been noted by several sources that the entire work of "The Twelve Caesars" delves more deeply into personal details and gossip relative to other contemporary Roman histories.
Suetonius describes a conflicted relationship between Augustus and his daughter, Julia. Augustus had originally wanted Julia, his only child, to provide for him a male heir. Due to difficulties regarding an heir, and Julia's promiscuity, Augustus banished Julia to an island and considered having her executed. Suetonius quotes Augustus as repeatedly cursing his enemies by saying that they should have "a wife and children like mine."
According to Suetonius, Augustus lived a modest life, with few of the luxuries that his rank would have allowed him to have. Augustus lived in an ordinary Roman house, ate ordinary Roman meals, and slept in an ordinary Roman bed.
Suetonius describes certain omens and dreams that predicted the birth of Augustus. One dream described in the book suggested that his mother, Atia, was a virgin impregnated by a Roman God. In 63 BC, during the Consulship of Cicero, several Roman Senators dreamt that a king would be born, and would rescue the Republic. 63 BC was also the year Augustus was born. One other omen described by Suetonius suggests that Julius Caesar decided to make Augustus his heir after seeing an omen while serving as the Roman Governor of Hispania Ulterior.
Suetonius includes a section regarding the only two military defeats Rome suffered under Augustus. Both of these defeats occurred in Germany. The first defeat was inconsequential. During the second, the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, three Roman Legions (Legio XVII, Legio XVIII, and Legio XIX) were slaughtered by Germanic barbarians due to poor planning by the Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus. Much of what is known about this battle was written in this book. According to Suetonius, this battle "almost wrecked the empire." It is from Suetonius where we get the reaction of Augustus upon learning of the defeat. Suetonius writes that Augustus hit his head against a wall in despair, repeating, Quintili Vare, legiones redde! ('Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!') This defeat was one of the worst Rome suffered during the entire Principate. The result was the establishment of the rivers Rhine and Danube as the natural northern border of the Roman Empire. Rome would never again push its territory deeper into Germany. Suetonius suggests that Augustus never fully got over this defeat.
[edit] Life of Tiberius
Suetonius describes the early career of Tiberius, which included his command of several Roman armies in Germany. It was his leadership in these German campaigns that convinced Augustus to adopt Tiberius and to make him his heir. According to Suetonius, Tiberius retired at a young age to Greece, before returning to Rome upon the death of Augustus. The ascendance of Tiberius to the throne was possible due to the fact that the three sons Augustus had died before any of them could succeed their father.
Augustus began a long (and at times successful) tradition of adopting an heir, rather than allowing a son to succeed an emperor. Suetonius quotes from the will Augustus left. Suetonius suggests that not only was Tiberius not thought of highly by Augustus, but Augustus expected Tiberius to fail.
After briefly mentioning some successes, Suetonius goes into depth regarding the madness of Tiberius. Tiberius would not only have homosexual sex (which was not unusual in the ancient world), but he would also have sex with boys. The extent was considered, even by Roman standards, to be extreme. Although Suetonius doesn't suggest it, other historians have suggested that Tiberius may have had sex with his successor Caligula when he was very young. Tiberius was very cruel to his subjects. He would arbitrarily have people executed. Offenses as innocent as speaking ill of Augustus were punishable by death. He would crush the heads of children with his bare hands. Suetonius describes Tiberius once forcing a subject to drink large quantities of wine. He then had their genitals tied so tightly that they could not urinate.
Tiberius died of natural causes. Suetonius describes widespread joy in Rome upon his death. There was a desire to have his body thrown off a particular cliff and into the Tiber River, as this he had done many times previously to others. Tiberius had no living children and no living heir when he died. However, he did have an adopted grandson, Gaius Caesar Caligula.
[edit] Life of Caligula
Most of what is known about the reign of Caligula comes from Suetonius. Caligula was so hated upon his death, that the Roman Senate issued a decree that all records of him be destroyed. In addition, other contemporary Roman works, such as those of Tacitus, contain little, if anything, about Caligula. Therefore, most of what existed at some point regarding his reign was lost long ago.
Suetonius refers to Caligula as Gaius during most of the work. Caligula's father, Germanicus, was loved throughout Rome. Germanicus was a brilliant military commander. Contemporary historians compare his charisma to John F. Kennedy and his military genius to Winston Churchill. Tiberius had adopted Germanicus as his heir, with the hope that Germanicus would succeed him. Germanicus ended up dying before he could succeed Tiberius. When Tiberius died, Caligula became emperor.
Caligula's subsequent depravity might have been caused by his difficult upbringing. He spent his early years with his father, who at the time was commanding several legions along the northern boarder of the empire. While still very young, his father would dress him up as a soldier. The soldiers loved Germanicus, and they also loved his son. They nicknamed him Caligula, which Suetonius mentioned literally means "little boots," since his father often had him wearing the same type of boot that the soldiers wore.
Upon the death of Tiberius, Caligula became emperor. Initially the Romans loved Caligula due to their memory of his father. But most of what Suetonius says of Caligula is negative. Suetonius says that Caligula was worse than Tiberius. Modern historians have speculated that he may have had anything from Schizophrenia to Encephalitis. Suetonius describes Caligula as having an affliction that caused him to suddenly fall unconscious. Suetonius believed that Caligula knew that something was wrong with him.
Suetonius cited examples of Caligula's insanity, whose infamy lives to this day. Most, if not all, of the surviving examples of Caligula's madness come from Suetonius. Caligula appointed his horse to the Senate. He married one of his sisters. He had sexual relations with multiple men.
In addition, Caligula once sent an army to the northern coast of Gaul. As they prepared to invade Britain, he had them pick sea shells on the shore. He once built a walkway from his palace to a Pagan Temple, so that he could be closer to his "brother," the Roman God Jupiter. He would even have busts of his head replace those on statues of different Gods.
He would call people to his palace in the middle of the night. When they arrived, he would hide and make strange noises. At other times, he would have people assassinated, and then call for them. When they did not show up, he would remark that they must have committed suicide.
Suetonius describes several omens that predicted the assassination of Caligula. He mentions a bolt of lightning that struck Rome on the Ides of March, which was when Julius Caesar was assassinated. Lightning was an event of immense superstition in the ancient world. The day of the assassination, Caligula sacrificed a flamingo. During the sacrifice, blood splattered on his clothes. Suetonius also describes a comet that was seen shortly before the assassination. In the ancient world, comets were believed to foretell the death or assassination of important people. Suetonius even suggested that Caligula's name itself was a predictor of his assassination, noting that every Caesar named Gaius (such as the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar) had been assassinated.
Caligula was an avid fan of Gladiatorial combats. He was assassinated shortly after such a fight. Suetonius mentions two possible scenarios describing the exact events. The assassination plot had been put together by several angry subjects. Caligula was only the first of what would be many Roman Emperors who would be assassinated.
[edit] Life of Claudius
Suetonius describes Claudius as the first emperor adopted into the Julian family. The previous emperors (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, as well as the earlier dictator Julius Caesar) had all been born into the Julian family,
The assassination of Caligula caused Claudius to become frightened. He hid behind some curtains, convinced that he would be murdered next. A soldier noticed his feet underneath the curtains and took him to a Praetorian camp, where he was declared emperor.
We learn from Suetonius that Claudius was the first Roman commander to invade Britain since Julius Caesar a century earlier. He also went farther than Caesar, and made Britain subject to Roman rule. Caesar had conquered Britain, but left the Britons alone to rule themselves. Claudius was not as kind. The invasion of Britain was the only major military campaign under his reign.
His madness was similar to that of Tiberius. Like Tiberius, he was not as cruel as Caligula. Suetonius discusses some of the cruelties that Claudius had been known for, although he does not devote as much attention to this as he did to Caligula's cruelty or even to that of Tiberius.
Suetonius discusses several omens that foretold the assassination of Claudius. He mentions a comet that several Romans had seen shortly before the assassination. As mentioned earlier, comets were believed to foretell the deaths of significant people. Upon hearing of this, Claudius ordered the execution of several Roman citizens, including Senators and aristocrats. Claudius was shortly after this the victim of an assassination conspiracy, dying of posion.
Suetonius paints Claudius as a ridiculous figure, belittling many of his acts and attributing the objectively good works to his retinue.[1] Thus the conception of Claudius as the weak fool, controlled by those he supposedly ruled, was preserved for the ages. Claudius’s dining habits figure in the biography, notably his immoderate greed and his affection for the city taverns, on which several other emperors attempted to impose tight regulations.
His personal and moral failings aside however, most modern historians agree that Claudius generally ruled well. They site his military success in Britania as well as his extensive public works. His reign came to an end when he was poisoned by a mushroom, probably by his last wife Agrippina in an attempt to have her own son from a previous marriage ascend the throne.
[edit] Life of Nero
Suetonius portrays the life of Nero in a similar fashion to that of Caligula - It begins with a recounting of how Nero assumed the throne ahead of Claudius son Britannicus and then descends into a recounting of various atrocities the young emperor allegedly performed.
One characteristic of Nero that Suetonius describes was Nero's fascination with music. Suetonius describes Nero as being a gifted musician. He had one boy castrated, and then had sex with him as though he were a woman. Suetonius quotes one Roman who lived around this time who remarked that the world would have been better off if Nero's father Gnaeus Domitius had married someone more like the castrated boy.
It is in Suetonius we find the beginnings of the legend that Nero "fiddled as Rome burned." Suetonius recounts how Nero, while watching Rome burn, exclaimed how beautiful it was, and sang an epic poem about the sack of Troy while playing the lyre.
Suetonius describes Nero's assassination, and remarks that his death meant the end of the reign of the Julio-Claudians (due to the fact that Nero had no heir). According to Suetonius, Nero was condemned to die by the Senate. When Nero knew that soldiers had been dispatched by the senate to kill him, he committed suicide.
[edit] Life of Galba
The book about Galba is short. This is because Galba's reign was only several months long. Galba was the first emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors.
Galba was able to ascend to the throne because Nero's death meant the end of Julio-Claudian rule.
Suetonius includes a brief description of Galba's family history. Suetonius describes Galba has being of noble birth, and born into a noble patrician family. Suetonius also includes a brief list of omens regarding Galba and his assassination.
Most of this book describes Galba's ascension to the throne and his assassination, along with the usual side notes regarding his appearance and related omens. Suetonius does not spend much time describing either any accomplishments nor any failures of his reign.
According to Suetonius, Galba was killed by Otho's loyalists.
[edit] Life of Otho
His full name was Marcus Salvius Otho. Otho's reign was only a few months. Therefore, the book on Otho is short, much as the book on Galba had been.
Suetonius used a similar method to describe the life of Otho as he had used to describe the life of Galba. Suetonius describes Otho's family, and their history and nobility. And just as Suetonius had done with prior Caesars, he includes a list of omens regarding Otho's reign and assassination.
Suetonius spends most of the book describing the ascension of Otho, his assassination, and the other usual topics. Suetonius suggests that as soon as Otho ascended the throne, he started defending himself against competing claims to the throne.
According to Suetonius, Otho suffered a fate similar to the fate Galba had suffered. It was the loyalists of another aspiring emperor (in this case, the next emperor Vitellius) who wanted to kill him. Suetonius claims that one night Otho realized that he would soon be murdered. He contemplated suicide, but decided to sleep one more night before carrying out a suicide. That night he went to bed, with a dagger under his pillow. The next morning he woke up, and stabbed himself to death.
[edit] Life of Vitellius
In the book of the last of the short-lived emperors, Suetonius briefly describes the reign of Vitellius.
Suetonius says that it was the followers of Vitellius who had assassinated Otho.
This book gives an unfavorable picture of Vitellius; however it should be remembered that Suetonius' father was an army officer who had fought for Otho and against Vitellius at the first Battle of Bedriacum.
Suetonius includes a brief description of the family history of Vitellius, and related omens.
Suetonius finally describes the assassination of Vitellius. According to Suetonius, Vitellius was dragged naked by Roman subjects, tied to a post, and had animal waste thrown at him before he was killed. However, unlike the prior two emperors, it was not the next emperor who killed Vitellius. The next emperor and his followers had been waging a war against the Jews in Palestine at the time. The death of Vitellius and subsequent ascendance of his successor ended the worst year of the early principate.
[edit] Life of Vespasian
[edit] Life of Titus
[edit] Life of Domitian
[edit] Notes
- ^ Scramuzza, p. 29
[edit] Complete editions and translations
- Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, The Twelve Caesars tr. Robert Graves. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957.
- C. Suetoni Tranquilli opera, vol. I: De vita Caesarum libri VIII ed. Maximilianus Ihm. Leipzig: Teubner, 1908.
- Suetonius, with an English translation by J. C. Rolfe. London: Heinemann, 1913-4.
[edit] Bibliography
- C. Suetoni Tranquilli Divus Vespasianus ed. A. W. Braithwaite. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927.
- C. Suetoni Tranquilli Divus Iulius [Life of Julius Caesar] ed. H. E. Butler, M. Cary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927. Reissued with new introduction, bibliography and additional notes by G.B. Townend. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1982.
- Suetonius, Divus Augustus ed. John M. Carter. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1982.
- A. Dalby, 'Dining with the Caesars' in Food and the memory: papers of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2000 ed. Harlan Walker (Totnes: Prospect Books, 2001) pp. 62-88.
- Suetonius, Domitian ed. Brian W. Jones. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1996.
- Suetonius, Tiberius ed. Hugh Lindsay. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1995.
- Suetonius, Caligula ed. Hugh Lindsay. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1993.
- Hans Martinet, C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Divus Titus: Kommentar. Königstein am Taunus: Hain, 1981.
- Suetonius, Claudius ed. J. Mottershead. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1986.
- Suetonius, Galba, Otho, Vitellius ed. Charles L. Murison. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1992.
- Scramuzza [citation needed]
- A. Wallace-Hadrill, Suetonius: the scholar and his Caesars. London: Duckworth, 1983.
- D. Wardle, Suetonius' Life of Caligula: a commentary. Brussels: Latomus, 1994.
- Suetonius, Nero ed. B.H. Warmington. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1999.
[edit] External links
- The Lives of the Twelve Caesars at LacusCurtius (Latin original, English translation)
- Suetonius' works at Latin Library (Latin)
- Works by Suetonius at Project Gutenberg
- The Lives of the Twelve Caesars at Project Gutenberg (English translation - includes Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets)
- Suetonius and the reign of Tiberius: a comparison with other sources
- Suetonius' Twelve Caesars at RomansOnline.Com
- Suetonius' Twelve Caesars at Roman Literature Online
| Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve Caesars, or de vita Caesarum |
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| Julius Caesar - Augustus - Tiberius - Caligula - Claudius - Nero - Galba - Otho - Vitellius - Vespasian - Titus - Domitian |
