Roman Writers, Writing and Historians: Suetonius

Contents - Previous Article - Next Article

Suetonius

A.D. 69 - about A.D. 140

GAIVS SVETONIVS TRANQVILLVS was a Roman writer of the first and second centuries A.D. who wrote about the lives of the first Roman emperors and their families. Suetonius concentrated on the private lives of the people he wrote about, while Tacitus, another contemporary historian, wrote about political events and the emperors conducted affairs of state. Both Suetonius and Tacitus, however, wrote a lot about scandalous events and the immoral and pleasure-seeking lifestyles of the Roman aristocrats of the time. Unlike Tacitus, Suetonius did try to report events fairly and didn't attempt to paint every emperor as a power hungry tyrant who ruled at the expense of traditional Roman rights and freedoms. His most famous work was The Lives of the Caesars, often translated and titled The Twelve Caesars. Suetonius was a friend of Pliny the Younger, who also wrote about events of the period.

Go to next article:
Go back to previous article:

Return to Roman Writers, Writing, and Historians Table of Contents