Gaius Suetonius, De vita Caesarum [Lives of the Caesars]

Remy Poignault (Université de CLERMONT-FERRAND 2)
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The

Lives of theCaesars

establishes Suetonius literary profile as a biographer: it is possible to discern, according to Leo (1901), an influence coming from the tradition of Alexandrian biography, which favored a precise style that was devoted to men of letters, and was opposite to the character-centered biography of the Peripatetics (the philosophical biography to which Plutarch would be the heir). Matters, nonetheless, are not so clear-cut, and the third-century BC peripatetic Satyrus’

Life of Euripides

discovered since Leo’s assessment shows that Alexandrian biography did evolve in the centuries prior to Suetonius. Suetonius also borrows from the Roman tradition of funeral oration, which centered on the public activities of the deceased and his moral qualities, and likewise…

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Citation: Poignault, Remy. "De vita Caesarum". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13471, accessed 19 March 2024.]

13471 De vita Caesarum 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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