Lives of the Twelve Caesars: vol
1, Julius Caesar, The
The Project Gutenberg EBook The Lives Of The Caesars, by Suetonius,
V1 #1 in our series by C. Suetonious Tranquillus
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print,"
and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the
bottom of this file. Included is important information about your
specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can
also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and
how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
Title: The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 1. [JULIUS
CAESAR]
Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6386] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 3,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF
THE CAESARS, SUETONIUS, V1 ***
This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger
THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS
By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
To which are added,
HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND
POETS.
The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.
revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
PREFACE
C. Suetonius Tranquillus was the son of a Roman knight who
commanded a legion, on the side of Otho, at the battle which decided
the fate of the empire in favour of Vitellius. From incidental notices in
the following History, we learn that he was born towards the close of
the reign of Vespasian, who died in the year 79 of the Christian era. He
lived till the time of Hadrian, under whose administration he filled the
office of secretary; until, with several others, he was dismissed for
presuming on familiarities with the empress Sabina, of which we have
no further account than that they were unbecoming his position in the
imperial court. How long he survived this disgrace, which appears to
have befallen him in the year 121, we are not informed; but we find that
the leisure afforded him by his retirement, was employed in the
composition of numerous works, of which the only portions now extant
are collected in the present volume.
Several of the younger Pliny's letters are addressed to Suetonius, with
whom he lived in the closest friendship. They afford some brief, but
generally pleasant, glimpses of his habits and career; and in a letter, in
which Pliny makes application on behalf of his friend to the emperor
Trajan, for a mark of favour, he speaks of him as "a most excellent,
honourable, and learned man, whom he had the pleasure of entertaining
under his own roof, and with whom the nearer he was brought into
communion, the more he loved him." [1]
The plan adopted by Suetonius in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, led
him to be more diffuse on their personal conduct and habits than on
public events. He writes Memoirs rather than History. He neither
dwells on the civil wars which sealed the fall of the Republic, nor on
the military expeditions which extended the frontiers of the empire; nor
does he attempt to develop the causes of the great political changes
which marked the period of which he treats.
When we stop to gaze in a museum or gallery on the antique busts of
the Caesars, we perhaps endeavour to trace in their sculptured
physiognomy the characteristics of those princes, who, for good or evil,
were in their times masters of the destinies of a large portion of the
human race. The pages of Suetonius will amply gratify this natural
curiosity. In them we find a series of individual portraits sketched to
the life, with perfect truth and rigorous impartiality. La Harpe remarks
of Suetonius, "He is scrupulously exact, and strictly methodical. He
omits nothing which concerns the person whose life he is writing; he
relates everything, but paints nothing. His work is, in some sense, a
collection of anecdotes, but it is very curious to read and consult." [2]
Combining as it does amusement and information, Suetonius's "Lives
of the Caesars" was held in such estimation, that, so soon after the
invention of printing as the year 1500, no fewer than eighteen editions
had been published, and nearly one hundred have since been added to
![](qr/23650/1.png)
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the
Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.