The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

6400

Title

The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Suetonius offers intimate, anecdotal portraits of Rome's most powerful rulers, from Caesar to Domitian. Blending biography with history, this collection reveals the private habits, ambitions, and vices of emperors who shaped the empire's destiny.

Summary up to 500 words

C. Suetonius Tranquillus presents a series of individual portraits of the twelve Caesars, focusing on their personal conduct, habits, and private lives rather than public events or military campaigns. The work serves as a collection of anecdotes that satisfies curiosity about the physiognomy and character of these princes who mastered the destinies of a large portion of the human race. Suetonius writes with scrupulous exactness and rigorous impartiality, omitting nothing concerning the person whose life he is writing but painting nothing. The text includes the lives of the grammarians, rhetoricians, and poets, abounding in anecdote and curious information connected with learning and literary men during the period treated. The translation by Dr. Alexander Thomson, revised by T. Forester, aims to produce a literal and faithful version, correcting the inaccuracies of earlier translations while retaining the original's diffuse nature. The work is held in high estimation, having been published in numerous editions since the invention of printing. Critics of the highest rank have devoted themselves to the task of correcting and commenting on the text, and the work has been translated into most European languages. The lives of the Caesars were 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 the number. The work is a collection of anecdotes, but it is very curious to read and consult. Combining 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 the number. Critics of the highest rank have devoted themselves to the task of correcting and commenting on the text, and the work has been translated into most European languages. Of the English translations, that of Dr. Alexander Thomson, published in 1796, has been made the basis of the present. He informs us in his Preface, that a version of Suetonius was with him only a secondary object, his principal design being to form a just estimate of Roman literature, and to elucidate the state of government, and the manners of the times; for which the work of Suetonius seemed a fitting vehicle. Dr. Thomson's remarks appended to each successive reign, are reprinted nearly verbatim in the present edition. His translation, however, was very diffuse, and retained most of the inaccuracies of that of Clarke, on which it was founded; considerable care therefore has been bestowed in correcting it, with the view of producing, as far as possible, a literal and faithful version. To render the works of Suetonius, as far as they are extant, complete, his Lives of eminent Grammarians, Rhetoricians, and Poets, of which a translation has not before appeared in English, are added. These Lives abound with anecdote and curious information connected with learning and literary men during the period of which the...

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Categories

• Classics
• Biography
• History