Suetonius: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
07/27/2016
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius is often seen primarily as a source of gossipy anecdotes, something its author was well-placed to provide thanks to his position at the imperial court and access to its archives. Yet as Mary Beard argues, his work read as a whole, from the rise of Julius Caesar to the reign of Domitian, has important things to say about the transmission of political power.
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Free online texts
Gutenburg: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, translated by Alexander Thomson. Multiple Formats.
Loebulus. L031 - Suetonius -- Suetonius I: Julius. Augustus. Tiberius. Gaius. Caligula. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Latin and English.
Loebulus. L038 - Suetonius -- Suetonius II: Claudius. Nero. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Vespasian. Titus, Domitian. Lives of Illustrious Men: Grammarians and Rhetoricians. Poets (Terence. Virgil. Horace. Tibullus. Persius. Lucan). Lives of Pliny the Elder and Passienus Crispus. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Latin and English.
Perseus: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars - Latin text. English translation (Reed, 1889). Online HTML only.
Poetry in Translation: The Twelve Caesars, translated by A.S. Kline (2010). multiple formats.
Standard Ebooks: The Lives of the Caesars, translated by J. C. Rolfe. AZW3, EPUB, KEPUB and Advanced EPUB formats.
University of Adelaide (Internet Archive): Lives of the Twelve Caesars, translated by Alexander Thomson. Revised by T. Forester. EPUB, HTML and MOBI formats.
Wikisource: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
Other Resources
A Don's Life: Taking Suetonius Seriously, a short blogpost by classicist Mary Beard.
Librivox: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars - public domain audiobook.
Livius.org: Suetonius.
The Conversation: Guide to the Classics - Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars explores vice and virtue in ancient Rome, by Caillan Davenport.
Wikipedia: Suetonius - The Twelve Caesars
The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes
Tacitus: The Annals - The Histories
Einhard: The Life of Charlemagne - modelled on Suetonius' life of Augustus.
Latin Resources: Online materials for learning Latin.
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