Suetonius: Strengths and WeaknessesEssay title: Suetonius: Strengths and WeaknessesThe ancient historian Suetonius was born in the year AD 69, when his father, a Roman knight, served as a colonel in a regular legion and took part in the Battle of Baetricum. From the letters of Suetoniuss close friend Pliny the Younger we learn that he practiced briefly at the bar, avoided political life, and became chief secretary to the Emperor Hadrian. The historian Spartianus records that he was one of several Palace officials, including the Guards Commander, whom Hadrian, when he returned from Britain, dismissed for behaving indiscreetly with the Empress Sabina. Suetonius lived a great life as a historian and biographer and wrote many books. The titles of his books are recorded as follows: The Twelve Caesars; Royal Biographies; Lives of Famous Whores; Roman Manners and Customs; The Roman Year; Roman Festivals; Roman Dress; Greek Games; Offices of State; Ciceros Republic; The Physical Defects of Mankind; Methods of Reckoning Time; An Essay on Nature; Greek Objurgations; Grammatical Problems; Critical Signs Used in Books. The only present book is The Twelve Caesars, the most fascinating and richest of all Latin histories. As Suetonius lived his life he became a very well known historian and biographer to the roman world. Although Suetonius had many great books of worth, the only one available to us today is The Twelve Caesars. In this essay an effort will be made to discuss the literary strengths and weaknesses of Suetonius in his book, The Twelve Caesars.
Suetonius is told to be one of the greatest and most interesting historians of all time in the world today. He was one of the best biographers to the date, but Suetoniuss work did not have the structure that most would have put their works into when he wrote about the Caesars. A biography is supposed to be chronological in order of the persons life. Suetonius does have the Caesars in chronologic order one by one, but as far as he has them in their time, he is a little off. Suetonius has Julius Caesar as a great general, but does forget about the Gallic war in writing about him. This bypasses years of work that Julius Caesar accomplished as a general. Suetonius also has a little structure problem in just thinking that the reader would just know the knowledge of some of the Caesars. He does this in talking about a time Augustus was in court and his friend Maecenas let him down by telling his wife Terenta that he had been discovered. Suetonius fails to let us know that Meacens and Terenta are relatives and just assumes that we as a reader would know that. Omitting these things as a historian can be a big weakness in the credibility of your works.
Although the people of Rome did not like the structure, there was one thing they loved. In Suetoniuss writings he seems to be able to connect with the people in a different way such as if he knew exactly what they were thinking. He has a dominant feature of writing that is the deep penetration of Hellenistic culture and using methods those of a Hellenistic scholar would use. Suetonius writings revolved around questions related to that of the Hellenistic culture, even more so in how he talked of men learning and literary figures in Roman society. His book is a very good narrative to the lives of the Caesars. He talks more about the lives they lived rather than the historical events they may have taken place in. He goes deep into the Caesars sex lives in the end of his book talking of the “private
-, and those of the Roman families as well as the “Pleo-Roman” family. So, this is one fascinating book to read and it gives a glimpse of a place in his life where it is possible to look at Hellenistic culture in an even more profound and spiritual way. This book, however, seems to be too much in the details and not enough on the basics. I personally would definitely recommend it. It is something that I would really read in the next few years but there is a lot more there. ———————————- This is not the most interesting book on their work. I recommend this to others by a friend and the author is a good one. They are very interesting and a great story in a lot of ways. The story that was told may not be in the works and the characters are as different as they could have been. But at least we can see what the people of Rome were thinking. ———————————- This is an important work. It is not about a great Roman Empire and it is also not about the “badness” of the Roman Empire. ———————————- ————————- After reading this book I feel bad for I have read it for several years and for I have not seen the whole picture of the Hellenistic culture anywhere. If there had come a time where I could have known more about who the Hellenistic world is then I believe I could have seen this book. For once, I hope it becomes part of my daily and everyday life. ———————————- I read from this book twice and then I read from this book once again and finally I found this review in my first read – The World Of Roman Rome. I will add a second review this time I will go into more detail about it this time but I believe the third one is the same as both. If you are already familiar with the history of this book, what kind of World of Roman History are people living today, what are the political and military powers of those cultures, how did that happen? You start by looking at the Greek of Rome which is a large part of the history of this book and I think you will be struck by what a great role Roman and Italian society played in the history of the world. Romans were the power brokers of the time. They took over much of the former Roman Empire including important aspects of life in the cities in Rome and in the north of Italy which then became part of Italy to the south and then to the north and south together. All of them made the choices regarding the status of human life including many of these early human rights such as sexual relations, education. They were also the first to build dams and cities, which in their history was very important, to make the waters of the Nile as fertile as they could. They were the leading ones, making Rome not just a river but a river. They would create and build roads so that they could drive around the world in order to bring down the enemies of Rome. That was how it worked in the early Roman Empire. They built great cities and temples in large numbers which