The Lives of the Twelve Caesars

by Suetonius · 1965

The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, written by the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, offers a vivid portrait of power from Julius Caesar’s rise and assassination to the troubled reign of Domitian. Suetonius, who served as private secretary to Emperor Hadrian, used imperial archives and eyewitness accounts to chronicle the public careers and private lives of Rome’s emperors, presenting them as vivid, human figures full of scandal, habit, ambition, cruelty, wit, superstition, and private weakness. The work is celebrated for its anecdotal style, wry observation, and detailed physical description, making it one of antiquity’s most colorful biographical collections.