Suetonius
Paperback | Pages: 363 pages Rating: 4.05 | 15267 Users | 581 Reviews
Be Specific About Epithetical Books The Twelve Caesars (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars #1-12)
| Title | : | The Twelve Caesars (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars #1-12) |
| Author | : | Suetonius |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Revised Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 363 pages |
| Published | : | May 6th 2003 by Penguin Classics (first published 121) |
| Categories | : | History. Classics. Nonfiction. Biography. Ancient History |
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As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, Suetonius gained access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eye-witness accounts) to produce one of the most colorful biographical works in history. The Twelve Caesars chronicles the public careers and private lives of the men who wielded absolute power over Rome, from the foundation of the empire under Julius Caesar and Augustus, to the decline into depravity and civil war under Nero, and the recovery that came with his successors. A masterpiece of anecdote, wry observation and detailed physical description, The Twelve Caesars presents us with a gallery of vividly drawn — and all too human — individuals.Robert Graves's celebrated translation, sensitively revised by Michael Grant, captures all the wit and immediacy of Suetonius' original.
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| Original Title: | De vita Caesarum |
| ISBN: | 0140449213 (ISBN13: 9780140449211) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Lives of the Twelve Caesars #1-12 |
| Characters: | Nero (emperor), Caligula, Lucius Livius Ocella Servius Sulpicius Galba, Titus Flavius Domitianus, Marcus Salvius Otho, Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Titus (emperor), Titus Flavius Vespasianus, Aulus Vitellius, Augustus, Julius Caesar |
Rating Epithetical Books The Twelve Caesars (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars #1-12)
Ratings: 4.05 From 15267 Users | 581 ReviewsEvaluate Epithetical Books The Twelve Caesars (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars #1-12)
One of those classics that is a genuine, even salacious pleasure to read, and the historical basis for Robert Graves's "I, Claudius", "The Twelve Caesars" covers the first twelve emperors of Ancient Rome (Including Julius Caesar, though Augustus was the first officially); the Julio-Claudians through Nero, his very brief successors Galba,Otho and Vitellius (in the tumultuous 'year of three Emperors', A.D. 69), and finally the Flavians Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Secretary to Hadrian,Suetonius (70 - 140 AD) was a biographer, librarian and high official under Trajanus and head of the royal archives under Hadrian. This biography of the twelve emperors is thought to have been published around 121 AD. The lives of the emperors of the Caesarian-Claudian lineage, thus up to and including Nero, are extensively discussed, while there are only concise biographies of the emperors following Nero. It is thought that this was due to the fact that Hadrian dismissed Suetonius for having an
Stranger than any fiction...the chapter on Caligula is truly disturbing.
It's hard to rate the raging lunatics of the Roman Caesars. One star, definitely, for the heinous acts that happened under their reign in Roman history, but five stars for Suetonius's recounting of it all. On one hand, the recounts were wonderfully retold. Everything was gruesomely and point-blank honestly laid out on the table. No details, it seems, were left untold. Even Suetonius said that though this was hard for him to write, he would write every bit of it. And he did.All the gross,
The mad, the bad and the dangerous to know. I don't care if he's a gossip. It's hilarious, and I gluttoned on the worst bits in my teens.
Example"Oh look this guy Nero seems alright why do people say he burned down Rome he is like Augustus 2.0".*few pages later*"How pathetic, this idiot is just competing in and "winning" all music competitions, he's just a misunderstood attention-seeking teenager, the poor thing".*few pages later*"God no NO NERO WHY PLEASE STOP!"Yes, the organisation of the stories is confusing, as shown above. You can't just split people's lives and personalities up into sections and present them thematically.Yet
This edition is based on Robert Graves' translation, revised with an Introduction and Notes by JB Rives. Rives explains that he has removed the interpolations Graves inserted to provide context to remarks that non-specialist readers would not be able to follow otherwise, and has used a glossary and footnotes to provide extra information to help out. Despite this I still found I floundered a bit, because I just don't know enough about ancient Roman government and social hierarchies, which were
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