I,Claudius Project: Suetonius



NAME: C. Suetonius Tranquilinus DATES : AD 70 - 130

CONSULTED WORK : De Vita Caesarum -biographies of the 12 Caesars from Julius Caesar to Domitian
GENRE : biography
LANGUAGE : Latin
STYLE : Each life is arranged thematically, under categories like childhood, accession to power, accomplishments, public life, private life, personal characteristics, death. These categories are supported by anecdotal evidence. It is with the choice of illustrative anecdote rather than editorial comment that Suetonius characterizes his subjects, allowing the reader to connect the dots.
RELIABILITY QUOTIENT : High
As one author of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae put it: "while historians wrote diserte (eloquently), Suetonius wrote vere (truthfully)" [SHA Prob. 2.7]. Suetonius as ab epistulis under Trajan and Hadrian had access to the Imperial archives. He quotes verbatim from letters Augustus. He is the major source for the reigns of Augustus, Caligula and Claudius.