The tales of the emperors’ sexual habits constitute some of the most famous passages in Suetonius. In Caligula’s case, it is from this point on that we read about his pretensions to divinity, his condemnation of aristocrats to hard labour in the mines, and his sexual immorality.Įmperor Tiberius, played by George Baker, in I Claudius. This “division” – a statement in which Suetonius clearly separates the anecdotes illustrating virtues from the vices – is a feature of several of his biographies. Thus far, it is as if we have been writing about an emperor, but the rest must be about a monster. He even gives due credit to the notorious Caligula, who began his reign by publishing the imperial budget and showing generosity to the people. All emperors appear as flawed men with both virtues and vices, but the balance between them depends on the individual ruler. Suetonius is fair and evenhanded in his treatment of his subjects. This helps to explain the later tales of Nero’s own savagery, because the reader would see that this vice was part of his nature. Early in the Life of Nero, the reader encounters Nero’s grandfather who staged particularly cruel shows in the arena. When Suetonius describes an emperor’s ancestors, he highlights how their qualities influenced the ruler himself.
The stories of virtue and vice in the Caesars are carefully selected to illustrate whether emperors measured up to this standard. In the second century A.D., when Suetonius was writing, there was no chance of a return to the Republic, but aristocrats still expected the emperor to behave as if he were merely the most prestigious citizen rather than an autocrat. These categories include the emperor’s virtues (such as justice, self-control, and generosity) and his vices (like greed, cruelty, and sexual excess). Instead, Suetonius tells his readers that he has carefully organized the stories “by categories”. Although Suetonius usually begins with an emperor’s family and upbringing, the bulk of each Life consists of an assortment of memorable, and sometimes salacious, anecdotes about an emperor’s public conduct and private life.īut this is no mere haphazard catalogue of sex and corruption. The structure of the individual biographies has often puzzled modern readers, who expect Suetonius to tell his story in a linear fashion from birth to death. 69 (Galba, Otho, Vitellius), and the Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, Domitian).
Instead The Twelve Caesars includes the Julio-Claudians, Rome’s first imperial dynasty (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero), three short-lived emperors during the civil wars of A.D. Political expediency meant that Suetonius wisely avoided writing about Hadrian.
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