Suetonius
Roman historian and biographer of the Twelve Caesars
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, known as Suetonius, was a Roman historian active in the early Imperial period. He was likely born around AD 69, a date inferred from his own mention of being roughly 57 years old after Nero's death. Most scholars place his birthplace in Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Algeria), a small North African town in Numidia. His family was of moderate social standing; his father, Suetonius Laetus, served as a tribune in the equestrian order with Legio XIII Gemina. Suetonius received his education in Rome during the flourishing of rhetoric schools.
He was a close friend of the senator and letter-writer Pliny the Younger, who described him as quiet, studious, and dedicated to writing. Pliny helped him buy a small property and asked Emperor Trajan to grant Suetonius tax immunities usually given to fathers of three children (the *ius trium liberorum*), since Suetonius was married but childless. Through Pliny, Suetonius gained favor with both Trajan and Hadrian. He may have served on Pliny’s staff when Pliny governed Bithynia and Pontus between 110 and 112. Under Trajan, he held the posts of secretary of studies and director of Imperial archives; under Hadrian, he became the emperor’s secretary.
According to the *Historia Augusta*, a later and often unreliable collection of biographies, Hadrian dismissed Suetonius for being too informal with the empress Vibia Sabina. *The Twelve Caesars* does not include Hadrian as an emperor.
Suetonius’s main surviving work is *De Vita Caesarum* (*The Twelve Caesars*), a set of biographies of twelve Roman rulers from Julius Caesar to Domitian, likely written during Hadrian’s reign. It was dedicated to his friend Gaius Septicius Clarus, a Praetorian prefect in 119. The work follows a consistent formula, covering each Caesar’s appearance, omens, family history, quotes, and a narrative. It contains the earliest recorded accounts of Julius Caesar’s epileptic seizures.
Other works by Suetonius survive only in part. These include *De Viris Illustribus* (*On Famous Men*), which contains lives of grammarians, rhetoricians, poets (including Virgil, Terence, Horace, and Lucan), and historians (with a brief life of Pliny the Elder). He also wrote two Greek works: *Peri ton par' Hellesi paidion* (*Greek Games*) and *Peri blasphemion* (*Greek Terms of Abuse*), which survive as extracts in later Greek glossaries.
Many of Suetonius’s works are lost. Titles mentioned by Robert Graves include *Royal Biographies*, *Lives of Famous Whores*, *Roman Manners 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*, and *Critical Signs Used in Books*. The Loeb edition, referencing the Suda, adds *On Roman spectacles and games*, *On names and types of clothes*, *On insults*, *On Rome and its customs and manners*, *On famous courtesans*, *On kings*, *On the institution of offices*, *On weather signs*, *On names of seas and rivers*, and *On names of winds*. Two further titles, *Pratum* (*Miscellany*) and *On various matters*, may be collections of some of these.
Notable editions include Robert Graves’s 1957 Penguin translation and J. C. Rolfe’s Loeb Classical Library volumes (1997 and 1998).
- born
- c. AD 69
- died
- after AD 122
- field
- History, biography
- nationality
- Roman
- known_for
- The Twelve Caesars
Lore & Background
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born about AD 69, a date deduced from his remarks describing himself as being about 57 years after Nero's death. His place of birth is disputed, but most scholars place it in Hippo Regius (the modern Annaba), at the time a small north African town in Numidia, in modern-day Algeria. It is certain that Suetonius came from a family of moderate social position, that his father, Suetonius Laetus, was a tribune belonging to the equestrian order (tribunus angusticlavius) in Legio XIII Gemina, and that Suetonius was educated when schools of rhetoric flourished in Rome. Suetonius was a close friend of senator and letter-writer Pliny the Younger. Pliny describes him as 'quiet and studious, a man dedicated to writing'. Pliny helped him buy a small property and interceded with the Emperor Trajan (not Hadrian) to grant Suetonius tax immunities usually granted to a father of three, the ius trium liberorum, because he was childless even though he was married; such tax immunities were also granted to thousands of inhabitants of Italy who were part of the empire at the time of Suetonius and Trajan and at the time...the population of Rome is estimated to have been more than 600,000 people. Through Pliny, Suetonius came into favour with Trajan and Hadrian. Suetonius may have served on Pliny's staff when Pliny was imperial governor (legatus Augusti pro praetore) of Bithynia and Pontus (northern Asia Minor) between 110 and 112. Under Trajan he served as secretary of studies (a studiis (precise functions are uncertain)) and director of Imperial archives (a bibliotecis); while under Hadrian, Suetonius became the emperor's secretary (ab epistulis). According to the controversial and often unreliable collection of biographies, 'The Historia Augusta', written more than 150 years after 'The Twelve Caesars', Hadrian later dismissed Suetonius from his position for conducting himself too informally around his wife, the empress Vibia Sabina. 'The Twelve Caesars' does not include Hadrian as emperor of Rome and the Roman senate at the time of Hadrian's death was less willing to deify Hadrian.
Reader's Guide
Suetonius is mainly remembered as the author of De Vita Caesarum—translated as The Life of the Caesars, although a more common English title is The Lives of the Twelve Caesars or simply The Twelve Caesars—his only extant work except for the brief biographies and other fragments noted below. The Twelve Caesars, probably written in Hadrian's time, is a collective biography of the Roman Empire's first leaders, Julius Caesar (the first few chapters are missing), Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The book was dedicated to his friend Gaius Septicius Clarus, a prefect of the Praetorian Guard in 119. The work tells the tale of each Caesar's life according to a set formula: the descriptions of appearance, omens, family history, quotes, and then a history are given in a consistent order. He recorded the earliest accounts of Julius Caesar's epileptic seizures.
Did You Know?
- Suetonius's place of birth is disputed, but most scholars place it in Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Algeria).
- He was a close friend of Pliny the Younger, who described him as 'quiet and studious, a man dedicated to writing'.
- Under Trajan, Suetonius served as secretary of studies and director of Imperial archives; under Hadrian, he became the emperor's secretary.
- His only fully extant work is The Twelve Caesars, covering rulers from Julius Caesar to Domitian.
Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)
"Tunc Caesar: "Eatur," inquit, "quo deorum ostenta et inimicorum iniquitas vocat. Iacta alea est," inquit." — Suetonius "Caesar exclaimed: "Let us accept this as a sign from the Gods, and follow where they beckon, in vengeance on our double-dealing enemies. The die is cast." — Suetonius "Pontico triumpho inter pompae fercula trium verborum praetulit titulum VENI·VIDI·VICI non acta belli significantem sicut ceteris, sed celeriter confecti notam." — Suetonius "At ne cui dubium omnino sit et impudicitiae et adulteriorum flagrasse infamia, Curio pater quadam eum oratione omnium mulierum virum et omnium virorum mulierem appellat." — Suetonius
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