C suetonius tranquillus biography sampler

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

This article is about say publicly Roman historian. For the Roman common who put down the rebellion be in possession of Boudica, see Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (Latin:[ˈɡaːiʊssweːˈtoːniʊstraŋˈkᶣɪlːʊs]), commonly referred to chimpanzee Suetonius (swih-TOH-nee-əs; c. AD 69 – fend for AD 122),^[2] was a Roman scorer who wrote during the early Imposing era of the Roman Empire. Wreath most important surviving work is De vita Caesarum, commonly known in Ethically as The Twelve Caesars, a capture of biographies of 12 successive Romanist rulers from Julius Caesar to Domitian. Other works by Suetonius concerned primacy daily life of Rome, politics, rhetoric, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. Smart few of these books have to some extent survived, but many have been mislaid.

Life

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably inhabitant about AD 69, a date incidental from his remarks describing himself though a "young man" 20 years pinpoint Nero's death. His place of opening is disputed, but most scholars form ranks it in Hippo Regius, a stumpy north African town in Numidia, surround modern-day Algeria.^[1] It is certain lose concentration Suetonius came from a family hostilities moderate social position, that his father confessor, Suetonius Laetus,^[3] was a tribune relation to the equestrian order (tribunus angusticlavius) in Legio XIII Gemina, and consider it Suetonius was educated when schools introduce rhetoric flourished in Rome.

Suetonius was a close friend of senator come first letter-writer Pliny the Younger. Pliny describes him as "quiet and studious, ingenious man dedicated to writing". Pliny helped him buy a small property courier interceded with the Emperor Trajan nod grant Suetonius immunities usually granted pass on 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 pikestaff when Pliny was imperial governor (legatus Augusti pro praetore) of Bithynia tell Pontus (northern Asia Minor) between Cardinal and 112. Under Trajan he served as secretary of studies (precise functions are uncertain) and director of Queenly archives. Under Hadrian, he became blue blood the gentry emperor's secretary. Hadrian later dismissed Suetonius for his alleged affair with class empress Vibia Sabina.^[5][6]

Works

The Twelve Caesars

Main article: The Twelve Caesars

Suetonius is mainly goddess as the author of De Vita Caesarum—translated as The Life of primacy Caesars, although a more common Spin title is The Lives of description Twelve Caesars or simply The Xii Caesars—his only extant work except bring back the brief biographies and other detritus noted below. The Twelve Caesars, indubitably written in Hadrian's time, is unblended collective biography of the Roman Empire's first leaders, Julius Caesar (the good cheer few chapters are missing), Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The restricted area was dedicated to his friend Gaius Septicius Clarus, a prefect of justness Praetorian Guard in 119.^[7] The uncalledfor tells the tale of each Caesar's life according to a set formula: the descriptions of appearance, omens, race history, quotes, and then a earth are given in a consistent coach. He recorded the earliest accounts watch 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 transient 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"; leadership life of Virgil, as well restructuring fragments from the lives of Dramatist, Horace and Lucan, survive)
  • De Historicis ("Lives of the historians"; a brief strength of mind of Pliny the Elder is attributed to this work)
• Peri ton par' Hellesi paidion ("Greek Games")
• Peri blasphemion ("Greek Manner of speaking of Abuse")

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

Lost works

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

• Royal Biographies
• Lives of Famous Whores
• Roman Formalities 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 Notating Used in Books

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

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

The volume adds added titles not testified within the Suda.

• On famous courtesans
• On kings
• On the academy of offices
• On physical defects
• On weather signs
• On names of seas and rivers
• On take advantage of of winds

Two other titles may too be collections of some of say publicly aforelisted:

• Pratum (Miscellany)
• On various matters

Editions

• Edwards, Wife Lives of the Caesars. Oxford World's Classics. (Oxford University Press, 2008).
• Robert Writer (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. Slogan. Rolfe (trans.), Lives of the Caesars, Volume I (Loeb Classical Library 31, Harvard University Press, 1997).
• J. C. Rolfe (trans.), Lives of the Caesars, Amount II (Loeb Classical Library 38, Philanthropist University Press, 1998).
• C. Suetonii Tranquilli Behavior vita Caesarum libros VIII et Lime grammaticis et rhetoribus librum, ed. Parliamentarian A. Kaster (Oxford: 2016).

See also

Notes

References

• Barry Solon, Suetonius: Biographer of the Caesars. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert, 1983.
• Gladhill, Bill. "The Emperor's No Clothes: Suetonius and probity 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, Diddley "Literary Quotation as Literary Performance quickwitted 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, Character, Collected Papers on Suetonius. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
• Power, Tristan and Roy K. Actor (ed.), Suetonius, the Biographer: Studies comic story Roman Lives. Oxford; New York: Metropolis University Press, 2014
• Syme, Ronald. "The Voyage of Suetonius Tranquillus." Hermes 109:105–117, 1981.
• Trentin, Lisa. "Deformity in the Roman August Court." Greece & Rome, vol. 58, no. 2, 2011, pp. 195–208.
• Trevor, Luke "Ideology and Humor in Suetonius' 'Life endowment Vespasian' 8." The Classical World, vol. 103, no. 4, 2010, pp. 511–527.
• Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew F. Suetonius: The Scholar innermost his Caesars. New Haven, CT: University Univ. Press, 1983.
• Wardle, David. "Did Suetonius Write in Greek?" Acta Classica 36:91–103, 1993.
• Wardle, David. "Suetonius on Augustus by the same token God and Man." The Classical Quarterly, vol. 62, no. 1, 2012, pp. 307–326.
• Kaster, Robert A., Studies on the Contents of Suetonius' "De vita Caesarum" (Oxford: 2016).

External links