Suetonius

{{Short description|Roman historian (c. AD 69 – after AD 122)}}
{{about|the Roman historian|the Roman general who put down the rebellion of Boudica|Gaius Suetonius Paulinus}}
{{expand German|date=October 2018|topic=hist}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
| image            = Suetonius etching (cropped).jpg
| caption          = 19th-century etching of Suetonius
| birth_date       = {{circa|AD 69}}
| birth_place      = 
| death_date       = After {{circa|AD 122}} (aged 53–54)
| death_place      = 
| occupation       = [[Secretary]], [[historian]]
| genre            = [[Biography]]
| subject          = [[History]], [[biography]], [[Eloquence|oratory]]
| movement         = [[Classical Latin|Silver Age of Latin]]
| notableworks     = ''[[The Twelve Caesars]]''
| signature        = 
| website          = 
| influences       = 
| influenced       = 
}}

'''Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus''' ({{IPA-la|ˈɡaːiʊs sweːˈtoːniʊs traŋˈkᶣɪlːʊs|lang}}), commonly referred to as '''Suetonius''' ({{IPAc-en|s|w|ɪ|ˈ|t|oʊ|n|i|ə|s}} {{respell|swih|TOH|nee|əs}}; {{circa|AD 69}} &ndash; after AD 122),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Suetonius |access-date=15 May 2017 |title=Suetonius |author=((The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)) |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}</ref> was a [[Roman historiography|Roman historian]] who wrote during the early [[History of the Roman Empire|Imperial era]] of the [[Roman Empire]]. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of 12 successive Roman rulers from [[Julius Caesar]] to [[Domitian]], properly titled [[The Twelve Caesars|''De vita Caesarum'']]. Other works by Suetonius concerned the daily life of [[Rome]], politics, oratory, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. A few of these books have partially survived, but many have been lost.

==Life==
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born about AD 69, a date deduced from his remarks describing himself as a "young man" 20 years after [[Nero]]'s death. His place of birth is disputed, but most scholars place it in [[Hippo Regius]], a small north African town in [[Numidia]], in modern-day [[Algeria]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=[[Lives of the Caesars]] |volume=1 |author=Suetonius |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=1997 |location=Cambridge |page=4}}</ref> It is certain that Suetonius came from a family of moderate social position, that his father, Suetonius Laetus,<ref>{{cite book |author=Suetonius |title=Vita Othonis |others=10, 1}}</ref> 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 [[Roman Senate|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]] to grant Suetonius immunities usually granted to a father of three, the ''[[ius trium liberorum]]'', because his marriage was childless.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pliny the Younger |author-link=Pliny the Younger |title=[[Epistulae (Pliny)|Letters]] |chapter=10.95 |chapter-url=http://attalus.org/old/pliny10b.html#95}}</ref> 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 (precise functions are uncertain) and director of Imperial archives. Under Hadrian, he became the emperor's secretary. Hadrian later dismissed Suetonius for his alleged affair with the empress [[Vibia Sabina]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius|volume=26}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=[[Historia Augusta]] |author=Hadrianus |author-link=Hadrian |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#11 |chapter=11:3 |quote=claims that Hadrian "removed from office Septicius Clarus, the prefect of the guard, and Suetonius Tranquillus, the imperial secretary, and many others besides, because without his consent they had been conducting themselves toward his wife, Sabina, in a more informal fashion than the etiquette of the court demanded."}}</ref>

==Works==
===The Twelve Caesars===
{{Main|The Twelve Caesars}}
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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Leighton Durham |last=Reynolds |author-link=Leighton Durham Reynolds |title=Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics |location=Oxford |year=1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJ11AAAAIAAJ |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |page=509 |isbn=978-0-19-814456-4 |quote=The dedication, in the lost preface, is recorded by a sixth-century source when the text was still complete}}</ref> 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 [[List of people with epilepsy|Julius Caesar's epileptic seizures]].

===Other works===

====Partly extant====
*''De Viris Illustribus'' ("On Famous Men" &mdash; in the field of literature), to which belong:
**''De Illustribus Grammaticis'' ("Lives of the [[Grammarian (Greco-Roman)|Grammarians]]"; 20 brief 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"; the life of [[Virgil]], as well as fragments from the lives of [[Terence]], [[Horace]] and [[Marcus Annaeus Lucanus|Lucan]], survive)
**''De Historicis'' ("Lives of the historians"; a brief life of [[Pliny the Elder]] is attributed to this work)
*''Peri ton par' Hellesi paidion'' ("Greek Games")
*''Peri blasphemion'' ("Greek Terms of Abuse")
The two last works were written in Greek. They apparently survive in part in the form of extracts in later Greek glossaries.

====Lost works====
The following list of Suetonius's lost works is from [[Robert Graves]]'s foreword to his translation of the ''Twelve Caesars.''<ref>{{cite book |author=Suetonius |translator-last=Graves |translator-first=Robert |translator-link=Robert Graves |title=Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars |year=1957 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Hamondsworth, Middlesex, England |page=7 |edition=1st |chapter=Foreword |editor-last=Rives |editor-first=James |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/35589/the-twelve-caesars/}}</ref>
*''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''
*''Critical Signs Used in Books''

The introduction to the Loeb edition of Suetonius, translated by J. C. Rolfe, with an introduction by  K. R. Bradley, references the ''[[Suda]]'' with the following titles:
*''On Greek games''
*''On Roman spectacles and games''
*''On the Roman year''
*''On critical signs in books''
*''On Cicero's Republic''
*''On names and types of clothes''
*''On insults''
*''On Rome and its customs and manners''

The volume adds other titles not testified within the Suda.
*''On famous courtesans''
*''On kings''
*''On the institution of offices''
*''On physical defects''
*''On weather signs''
*''On names of seas and rivers''
*''On names of winds''

Two other titles may also be collections of some of the aforelisted:

*''Pratum (Miscellany)''
*''On various matters''

==Editions==
* Edwards, Catherine ''Lives of the Caesars.'' Oxford World's Classics. (Oxford University Press, 2008). 
* Robert Graves (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.C. Rolfe (trans.), ''Lives of the Caesars, Volume I'' ([[Loeb Classical Library]] 31, Harvard University Press, 1997).
* J.C. Rolfe (trans.), ''Lives of the Caesars, Volume II'' (Loeb Classical Library 38, Harvard University Press, 1998).
* ''C. Suetonii Tranquilli De vita Caesarum libros VIII et De grammaticis et rhetoribus librum'', ed. Robert A. Kaster (Oxford: 2016).

==See also==
* [[Suetonius on Christians]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* [[Barry Baldwin]], ''Suetonius: Biographer of the Caesars''. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert, 1983.
* Gladhill, Bill. "The Emperor's No Clothes: Suetonius and the Dynamics of Corporeal Ecphrasis." ''Classical Antiquity'', vol. 31, no. 2, 2012, pp.&nbsp;315–348.
* Lounsbury, Richard C. ''The Arts of Suetonius: An Introduction.'' Frankfurt: Lang, 1987.
* Mitchell, Jack "Literary Quotation as Literary Performance in Suetonius." ''The Classical Journal'', vol. 110, no. 3, 2015, pp.&nbsp;333–355
* Newbold, R.F. "Non-Verbal Communication in Suetonius and 'The Historia Augusta:' Power, Posture and Proxemics." ''Acta Classica'', vol. 43, 2000, pp.&nbsp;101–118.
* Power, Tristan, ''Collected Papers on Suetonius''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
* Power, Tristan and Roy K. Gibson (ed.), ''Suetonius, the Biographer: Studies in Roman Lives.'' Oxford; New York:   Oxford University Press, 2014
* Syme, Ronald. "The Travels of Suetonius Tranquillus." ''Hermes'' 109:105–117, 1981. 
* Trentin, Lisa. "Deformity in the Roman Imperial Court." ''Greece & Rome'', vol. 58, no. 2, 2011, pp.&nbsp;195–208. 
* Trevor, Luke "Ideology and Humor in Suetonius' 'Life of Vespasian' 8." ''The Classical World'', vol. 103, no. 4, 2010, pp. 511–527.
* Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew F. ''Suetonius: The Scholar and his Caesars.'' New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1983.
* Wardle, David. "Did Suetonius Write in Greek?" ''Acta Classica'' 36:91–103, 1993.
* Wardle, David. "Suetonius on Augustus as God and Man." ''The Classical Quarterly'', vol. 62, no. 1, 2012, pp.&nbsp;307–326.
* Kaster, Robert A., ''Studies on the Text of Suetonius' "De vita Caesarum"'' (Oxford: 2016).

==External links==
{{wikiquote|Suetonius}}
{{wikisource author}}
{{Commons category|Suetonius}}
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Suetonius
  |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
*[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/home.html ''The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'' at LacusCurtius] (Latin original, English translation)
* [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/suet.html Suetonius' works at Latin Library] (Latin)
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/suetonius}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2024}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Suetonius}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4891}}
* [http://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cdl;idno=cdl227 Gai Suetoni Tranquilli De vita Caesarum libri III-VI] Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_195.html Lewis E 195 Vitae XII caesarium (Lives of the twelve caesars), fragment and Book of Hours leaf at OPenn]
*[https://www.livius.org/sources/content/suetonius/ Livius.org: Suetonius]

{{Ancient Rome topics|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:69 births]]
[[Category:2nd-century deaths]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman biographers]]
[[Category:2nd-century historians]]
[[Category:Latin historians]]
[[Category:Silver Age Latin writers]]
[[Category:2nd-century Romans]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman equites]]
[[Category:Suetonii]]
[[Category:1st-century Romans]]
[[Category:Ab epistulis]]