So, How to Read Suetonius

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Just bought Suetonius in a nearby used books shop, have been delving into it enthusiastically - BUT! I'm getting concerned at how the treatment of Divus Ivlivs is a bit more flattering than one would expect. Check out the sections where Suetonius makes a complete description of Caesar's character (precisely here from p. 45 on), is that reliable at all? I mean we all know that Caesar was great, Caesar this, Caesar had cojones and all the like, and Caesar that, but how far is Suetonius talking off anecdotes, how far he's reliable and how far he's our only source? Also, are there any good modern sources on Caesar besides Goldsworthy et all which adopt a slightly more critical view? Thanks.

[SigniferOne]

What's about Plutarch? He has an excellent biography of Caesar, and he doesn't feel like he needs to give him plaudits when none are due.

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

You hit at my weak point! I've read Plutarch, but that's about "reading" an old edition by Hugh Clough which somehow does not have the second volume containing Caesar's life, presumably missing or never ever bought (it was printed in the 30's* and acquired by my granddad 50 years ago in Bolivia). Since my tolerance for e-books is about nil there I go ordering hard copies again ; enough to say that I didn't know Plutarch had written about Divus Iulius until now, when I did a quick wiki check .

Thanks anyway Siggy.

Anyway, any good modern sources and insights you can vouch for? There's so many out there yet I don't know how much reliable they can be and cash is limited.

* Correction, judging by the opening signatures on the book which say "1949" and another "1914", this edition is about a century old lol.

[Flavius Aetius]

I would recommend you read a recent critical edition of Suetonius. Here are some good ones:

-Suetonius, The Flavian emperors : a historical commentary / Brian Jones and Robert Milns. Bristol : Bristol Classical, 2002.

-Vies des douze Césars / Suétone ; texte établi et traduit par Henri Ailloud. Paris : Les Belles lettres, 2002.

They should be available in a good university library.

[FliegerAD]

Reading Suetonius, one need to keep in mind two points: first being magister a bibliothecis he had access to the imperial archives, but he obviously did not use them much. It has been theorized he started his vitae after he lost access to them due to fall from grace in 122 AD. Another possibility could be a lack of interest in the archives. Second, he was definitely not writing history books. Competition with Tacitus was not on his mind, he wanted to present the personality of great men. He did not write about them to research their historical impact, he wrote because of their historical impact. That means you can find a lot stories in it, but many of them are hardly more than gossip.

As for a critical modern biography on Caesar, Julius Caesar. Die Ehre des Kriegers und die Not des Staates (The Warrior’s Honor and the State’s Misery) by Werner Dahlheim is a thoroughly researched, well written, and provocative account, published in 2005. He argues Caesar was more interested in the waging of warfare and the glory of it than anything else, certainly not interested in the political future of the republic. Using the republic to fuel his wars, unscrupulously eliminating every thread to his ambitions, Caesar directly paved the way to its downfall. Probably because Dahlheim was born in 1938 and has seen all the consequences of war he has little admiration for (purely) military successes, a common feature among German scholars up to day.