De vita Caesarum (Latin; "On the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as The Twelve Caesars or The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire during the Principate. The subjects are Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.
The Twelve Caesars was written in 121 AD by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (called "Suetonius" by scholars) while he served as a personal secretary to the emperor Hadrian. Suetonius dedicated the work to his friend Gaius Septicius Clarus, a praetorian prefect.
The Twelve Caesars was a large and significant work in its day. It, along with the works of Tacitus, it has become a useful extant primary source for Classics scholars.
Historicity Historians often criticize the book as racy, sensationalist, overly reliant on gossip, and for forfeiting accuracy for drama or humor. Suetonius appears to rely heavily on hearsay and rumor in his accounts, and at times, he includes subjective opinions within otherwise objective knowledge. He also omits several important events for unknown reasons.
Although he was never a senator himself, Suetonius shared the view of the Senate in most conflicts with the princeps. This resulted in biases, both conscious and unconscious. Suetonius lost access to the official archives shortly after beginning his work. He was forced to rely on secondhand accounts when it came to Claudius (with the exception of the letters of Augustus, which had been gathered earlier) and does not quote the emperor.
Despite these critiques, scholars agree that the collection does provide some valuable information on the heritage, personal habits, physical appearance, lives, and political careers of the first Roman emperors, largely due to the inclusion of small details not included in other works. Suetonius remains the major source on the lives of certain emperors, including Caligula, Claudius, and Vespasian, especially since other sources have been lost to history (such as the relevant sections of Tacitus' Annals).
Constituent works
Julius Caesar Suetonius begins this section with the death of Caesar's father, when Caesar himself was sixteen years old. Suetonius describes Caesar's relationship with a wealthy woman named Cossutia at this time and then recounts his engagement to Cornelia during the civic strife. He also relates Caesar's military conquests, especially those in Gaul, and his Civil War against Pompey the Great. To characterize Caesar during the war, Suetonius quotes him in a battle that he nearly lost: "That man [Pompey] does not know how to win a war". Suetonius also includes one of Caesar's most famous sayings: "Veni, vidi, vici" ('I came, I saw, I conquered').
One memorable incident which Suetonius describes is when a young Caesar was captured by pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. Caesar amusingly insisted that the initial ransom they sought in return for his life was too low, and he ordered the pirates to raise the price to 50 talents. He spent the remainder of his time in captivity addressing them as subordinates, participating in their games and exercises, and forcing them to listen to his speeches and poetry. He also promised that, upon being freed, he would one day find the pirates and crucify them, which was a standard punishment for piracy during this time. He was released after about one month of captivity following the payment of the 50-talent ransom. Caesar, despite holding no command or public office, quickly raised an army entirely on his own, captured the pirates, and crucified them. He also recovered the 50 talents.
Suetonius also tells us that while serving as quaestor in Hispania, Caesar once visited a statue of Alexander the Great. Upon viewing this statue, Suetonius reports that Caesar fell to his knees, weeping. When asked what was wrong, Caesar sighed and said that by the time Alexander was his (Caesar's) age, he had conquered the whole world.
Suetonius describes Caesar's gift at winning the loyalty and admiration of his soldiers. Suetonius mentions that Caesar commonly referred to them as "comrades" rather than "soldiers". When one of Caesar's legions took heavy losses in a battle, Caesar vowed not to trim his beard or hair until he had avenged the deaths of his men. Suetonius, in order to demonstrate the men's loyalty and dedication to Caesar, notes that one of Caesar's soldiers, despite having his hand cut off, still managed to board an enemy ship and subdue its crew.
Suetonius mentions Caesar's famous crossing of the Rubicon (the border between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul), on his way to Rome to start a Civil War against Pompey and ultimately seize power.
Suetonius later describes Caesar's major reforms upon defeating Pompey and seizing power. One such reform was the modification of the Roman calendar. Caesar updated the calendar, which already used a system of solar years and lunar months, to reflect new understandings of a solar year’s duration and minimize the number of days lost per year. Caesar also renamed the month of his birth to July, in his own honor.
Suetonius alleges that Caesar planned to invade and conquer the Parthian Empire, but he was assassinated before he could carry out these plans.
Suetonius includes a description of Caesar's appearance and personality. Suetonius says that Caesar was semi-bald; due to embarrassment regarding his premature baldness, Caesar combed his hair over and forward. Caesar wore a senator's tunic with an orange belt. Suetonius quotes the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had known Caesar during the Social War, as saying, "Beware the boy with the loose clothes, for one day he will mean the ruin of the Republic", noting Caesar's tendency to wear loose-fitting clothes. Suetonius also reports that Caesar took steps to prevent others from referring to him as "king", since his political enemies at the time had claimed that Caesar wanted to bring back the much reviled monarchy.
Finally, Suetonius describes Caesar's assassination. Shortly before his assassination, Caesar told a friend that he wanted to die a sudden and spectacular death. Suetonius believes that several omens predicted the assassination. One such omen was a vivid dream Caesar had the night before his assassination. On the day of the assassination, Suetonius claims that Caesar was given a document describing the entire plot. Caesar took the document, but did not have a chance to read it before he was assassinated.
Suetonius says that others have claimed that Caesar reproached the conspirator Brutus, saying "You too, my child?" (). This specific wording varies slightly from the more famous quote, "Even you, Brutus?" (et tu, Brute) from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. However, Suetonius himself asserts that Caesar said nothing, apart from a single groan, as he was being stabbed. Instead, Suetonius reports that Caesar exclaimed, "Why, this is violence!" as the attack began.
Augustus
Before he died, Julius Caesar had designated his great-nephew, Gaius Octavius (who would be named Augustus by the Roman Senate after becoming emperor), as his adopted son and heir. Octavius' mother, Atia, was the daughter of Caesar's sister, Julia Minor.
Octavian (not yet renamed Augustus) finished the civil wars started by his great-uncle, Julius Caesar. One by one, Octavian defeated the legions of the other generals who wanted to succeed Julius Caesar as the master of the Roman world. Suetonius includes descriptions of these civil wars, including the final one against Mark Antony that ended with the Battle of Actium. Antony had been Octavian's last surviving rival but committed suicide after his defeat at Actium. It was after this victory in 31 BC that Octavian became master of the Roman world and imperator (emperor). His declaration of the end of the civil wars that had begun under Julius Caesar marked the historic beginning of the Roman Empire and the Pax Romana. At this point, Octavian was given the title ("the venerable") by the Roman Senate.
After describing the military campaigns of Augustus, Suetonius describes his personal life. A large section of the entire book is devoted to this. This is partly because, after the Battle of Actium, the reign of Augustus was mostly peaceful. It has also been noted by several sources that the entirety of The Twelve Caesars delves more deeply into personal details and gossip than other contemporary Roman histories.
Suetonius describes the relationship between Augustus and his daughter Julia as strained. Augustus had originally wanted Julia, his only child, to provide him with a male heir. Due to difficulties regarding an heir, and Julia's promiscuity, Augustus banished Julia to the island of Pandateria and considered having her executed. Suetonius quotes Augustus repeatedly cursing his enemies, saying that they should have "a wife and children like mine."
According to Suetonius, Augustus lived a modest life, with few luxuries. Augustus lived in an ordinary Roman house, ate ordinary Roman meals, and slept in an ordinary Roman bed.
Suetonius describes certain omens and dreams that predicted the birth of Augustus. One dream described in the book suggested that his mother, Atia, was a virgin impregnated by a Roman god. In 63 BC, during the consulship of Cicero, several Roman senators dreamt that a king would be born and would rescue the republic. 63 BC was also the year Augustus was born. One other omen described by Suetonius suggests that Julius Caesar decided to make Augustus his heir after seeing an omen while serving as the Roman governor of Hispania Ulterior.
Suetonius includes a section about the only two military defeats Rome suffered under Augustus, both of which occurred in Germany. The first defeat was inconsequential. During the second, the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, three Roman legions (Legio XVII, Legio XVIII, and Legio XIX) were defeated by the West-Germanic resistance to Roman imperialism, led by Arminius. Much of what is known about this battle was written in this book. According to Suetonius, this battle "almost wrecked the empire". Suetonius describes Augustus' reaction upon learning of the defeat, writing that Augustus hit his head against a wall in despair, repeating, "Quintili Vare, legiones redde! " ('Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!'). This defeat was one of the worst Rome suffered during the entire Principate. The result was the establishment of the rivers Rhine and Danube as the natural northern border of the empire. Rome would never again push its territory deeper into Germany. Suetonius suggests that Augustus never fully got over this defeat.
Tiberius
Suetonius opens his book on Tiberius by highlighting his ancestry as a member of the patrician Claudii, and recounts his birth father's career as a military officer both under Caesar and as a supporter of Lucius Antonius in his rebellion against Octavian. Upon the resumption of peace, Octavian took an interest in Livia and requested that the couple divorce so that he could marry her, making Tiberius his stepson. Tiberius's adolescence and marriages are recorded, with Suetonius noting Tiberius's displeasure at being forced by Augustus to divorce his first wife, Vipsania Agrippina, in order to marry Augustus's daughter Julia.