Suetonius
| Suetonius | |
| Birth name | Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus in Latin |
|---|---|
| Activity (s) | Historian Biographer |
| Birth | to 69 AD. AD Rome |
| Deaths | to 130 |
| Writing language | Latin |
| Genre (s) | History |
Suetonius in Latin) is a polygraph and a scholar Roman who lived between the I. and II century. He is best known for his Lives of the Twelve Caesars , which includes the biographies of Julius Caesar to Domitian.
Summary |
Little is known of the life of Suetonius. Two or three passages in his books, some letters of Pliny the Younger , a reference in the Vita Adriani Spartian, a sentence of Johannes Lydus are the only elements that allow us to reconstruct her biography.
Suetonius was probably born in Rome around 69 - 70 AD. AD, a family belonging to the equestrian order. His father, Suetonius Laetus was angusticlave tribune of the thirteenth legion and fought in the army of Otho the battle Bedriac in 69 AD, where Vitellius triumphed.
One letter to his friend and patron Pliny the Younger presents Suetonius, then aged about 28 years, preparing to plead as an attorney and another, written about 101, Suetonius tells us running for the post of military tribune , a necessary condition for to qualify for the equestrian career. It seems that Suetonius was able to be exempt from military service. Moreover, his friend Pliny the Younger made him get the Emperor Trajan in 112 the privilege granted to fathers of three children, although he had none.
On the death of Pliny the Younger , in 113 , Suetonius focuses on a new protector, C. Septicius Clarus, which gets under Hadrian the important post of secretary ab epistolis Latin (that is to say responsible for correspondence of the Emperor). This charge allowed Suetonius including access to the imperial archives. He wrote his first book, De Viris illustribus (published around 113). Between 119 and 122, appears the Lives of the Twelve Caesars , the culmination of his career.
A passage from Suetonius Spartian us that, despite the friendly relations that had always maintained with Hadrian , incurred by 121 - 122 , a disgrace and brutal end, probably due to some court intrigue, along with the prefect of courtroom , namely equestrian ranked officer who commanded the cohorts praetorian , and praetorian guard of the emperor. The fact is that we know nothing of Suetonius after that date without doubt he lived when in retirement, devoting himself entirely to his work on grammar, literature and history. He died after 122 So, without that we know the year, probably around 130 , but may be up 160.
Work
Suetonius was a very prolific author if we are to believe the long list of books that Souda and some authors attribute. He was a scholar who wrote on diverse subjects, a polygraph incredibly lively curiosity, who possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of how to Varro.
Lost works
They are huge and all written in Latin or Greek :
- A treatise on the costumes of the Romans.
- A treatise on the manners and customs of the Romans.
- A treatise on the famous courtesans.
- A Treatise on the De Republica of Cicero.
- A treatise on the signs of abbreviation.
- A treaty on children's games with the Greeks.
- A treaty on offensive language.
- A treatise on the Kings: From regibus.
- An encyclopedia of natural history: Prata (Prairies).
- Two books on Roman public games.
- Life of Terence (book on the lives and livelihoods of Terence)
Works preserved
Men illustrious (De viris illustribus)
This book is devoted to the glories of Latin literature. It is divided into 5 parts:
- poets from Livius Andronicus.
- speakers from Cicero.
- historians since Sallust.
- philosophers.
- grammarians.
We only stayed for most of the last division on the grammarians (De grammatica) and the rhetoricians (From rhetoribus), we lost the end. It has retained, in addition, his Lives of Terence , of Virgil , of Horace and Lucan , transcribed on some manuscripts of the works of these authors. The Lives of Tibullus and Persia are perhaps also of his hand.
The Lives of Twelve Caesars (De vita libri Duodecim Caesarum)
As Secretary of Hadrian , Suetonius had access to the imperial archives, which allowed him to consult contemporary sources such as minutes of meetings of the Senate , the senatus-consulta , letters and wills of emperors. However, Suetonius has little interest in history and administration of the Empire , he is only interested in actions and personality of the first Caesars , and more particularly to their vices and their failings, This has earned the reputation of Suetonius peddler of gossip His style The style of Suetonius is cold and without much ornamentation. His literary star suffers particularly by comparison with that of his contemporary Tacitus , the author of the Annals and the Histories, considered the greatest Roman historian. Suetonius's prose is that of a compiler, which does not show the emotion with caution. It has neither the political intelligence nor the penetration of Tacitus , whose work is tinged with pessimism before it sees the decadence of Roman political morality, which he attributes to the advent of imperial power from absolute to Augustus. But the critics generally agreed the lively portraits of Suetonius, written in a simple and precise prose, aimed primarily at efficiency, and lacking the archaic phraseology and valuable that clutters contemporary literature. Suetonius follows a immutable: it evokes the first family of the emperor , his youth and his public career, his physique and his private life. His works became models for the kind biographers of the Middle Ages. The historic capital of Suetonius was also considerable: the Middle Ages , Einhard was inspired to write the history of Charlemagne and his heirs, then his works were republished during the Renaissance , from the birth of the printing. Bibliography
See also
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