Suetonius

As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, the scholar Suetonius had access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eyewitness accounts) to produce one of the most colorful biographical works in history....

Suetonius wrote his Lives of the Twelve Caesars in the reign of Vespasian around 70AD. He chronicled the extraordinary careers of Julius, Augustus....

From the dignified grace of Augustus to the cruel debauchery of Nero, this history chronicles all the vices and virtues of the first 12 rulers of Imperial Rome....

De Vita Caesarum ("About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as The Twelve Caesars, is a set of 12 biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus....

The Roman biographer Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. 69-after AD 122) lived about 50 years after the reign of Aulus Vitellius, whose biography forms part of his book De Vita Caesarum....

The Life of Otho tells a story of ambition, betrayal, and power. After Nero’s suicide, Otho expected to assume the role of emperor, but his old ally Galba became Nero’s successor. Rather than give up, Otho murdered Galba and took his place as emperor, though not for long....

Before his assassination, Julius Caesar named his great nephew Gaius Octavius as his successor. In this excerpt from The Twelve Caesars, Roman biographer Suetonius tells the life story of Octavius, who took the name Augustus when he became emperor....

Caligula’s father was a beloved military leader, so the Romans were initially glad to see his son take the throne, but Suetonius recounts the less flattering aspects of Caligula’s life and rule that followed his ascension....

Suetonius' most important surviving work is known as the "De Vita Caesarum", a set of twelve biographies of the successive Roman rulers...

Suetonius' most important surviving work is known as the "De Vita Caesarum", a set of twelve biographies of the successive Roman rulers.

What would Caligula do? What the worst Roman emperors can teach us about how not to lead....