"for a course of Antient history therefore, of Greece and Rome especially, I should advise the usual suite of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus, Livy, Caesar, Suetonius, Tacitus and Dion, in their originals, if understood, and in translations if not." - Thomas Jefferson to George W. Lewis, 25 Oct. 1825

http://nhw.livejournal.com/266315.html

What do you do if you're the Emperor Hadrian's secretary and have a certain amount of spare time? You write a racy popular account of the lives of his predecessors as emperor of Rome.

I have to say that the first biography, that of Julius Caesar, the one who wasn't actually Emperor, comes off as the best of the lot. The Augustus one I found soporific, apart from Suetonius' references to what he'd found in Mark Antony's correspondence, which made me wish he'd written about Mark Antony instead. Tiberius comes across as such a dreadful individual and ruler that it is inexplicable (going by Suetonius' account) that he lasted 23 years. Caligula even worse; Claudius comes across relatively well; Nero actually starts off with some good points, before descending into craziness. The three Emperors of AD 68-69 barely have time to establish themselves as characters in our mind before they each die horribly in turn. I wished he had written more about Vespasian and Titus, who both come across as competent (by Roman standards, that is; they did of course together conquer and devastate Jerusalem and the surrounding territory). Domitian turns into another crazy, ushering in the two Emperors who Suetonius didn't write about but for whom he actually worked, Trajan and Hadrian. Michael Grant in the foreword suggests that the last six were published as a supplement to the first six, and that the fact that Suetonius quotes no first-hand source later than Augustus' reign indicates that he got sacked after finishing that biography. Maybe; we will never know for sure.

Suetonius notes how, under Nero, "Punishments were also inflicted on the Christians, a sect professing a new and mischievous religious belief." Amusing that this is part of the (substantial) list of good things that Nero did. There's a reference also earlier to the Jews of Rome becoming agitated by a man called "Chrestus" which sounds like a distorted version of something involving early Christianity. ( )