What Happened
Suetonius ignores the sweeping troop movements of traditional history to focus on what the Emperors were doing in their bedrooms and at their banquets. Writing as an imperial secretary with access to private records, he details Julius Caesar’s twenty-three stab wounds, Augustus’s preference for simple food, and the increasingly erratic cruelty of later rulers like Caligula and Nero. The work operates as a series of character studies rather than a timeline, categorizing each man by his omens, his physical appearance, and his specific style of governance. Beyond the Caesars, the collection preserves the careers of poets like Horace and Virgil, often noting their struggles with patronage and their eventual ends.
Key figures
- Suetonius
Imperial secretary and biographer who lost his post for over-familiarity with the Empress.
- Julius Caesar
The first subject who secured his power with loans and died by betrayal.
- Augustus
The restorer of patrician rank who preferred temperate living and Mars sacrifices.
- Nero
An emperor who performed on stage and wished he had never learned to write.
- Pliny the Elder
Procurator and naturalist who died investigating the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
What it's really about
- Imperial Character
- How personal virtues or vices directly dictated Roman law.
- Omens and Ancestry
- The belief that lineage and signs foretold political destiny.
Why it's memorable
- Domitian hiding in a sacristan's house and disguising himself as a worshipper of Isis.
- Nero ordering races in the circus featuring chariots drawn by four camels.
Where it lands
Plinius Secundus of New Como commanded the fleet at Misenum. When Vesuvius erupted, he put to sea to observe the phenomenon at close range, where he was suffocated by a cloud of dust and ashes. Some suggest he instead requested that his own slave kill him as the heat became unbearable.
For your book club
- The transition of the Octavian family from the equestrian order to the imperial throne.
- The suspicious resemblance between Tiberius and the father of the short-lived Emperor Otho.