As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian Suetonius would have had plenty of access to the imperial archives, not to say a first-hand view of the court in action. In this book he paints portraits of the first twelve, all too human Emperors, from Julius Caesar through to Domitian. Does a common picture emerge from the portraits? Unfortunately, even worryingly, yes; insanity. Even if the prospective Emperor was not mad to begin with, and the Roman habit of popping off their nearest and dearest can hardly have helped a healthy emotional development, a couple of years at the helm seems to have left most of them pretty much barking! After a while the stories become depressingly familiar, get to the throne on a wave of popularity, try and maintain that by having almost continuous public holiday and ever more elaborate games, followed by disenchantment, increasing cruelty, brutality and madness. The message seems clear, 'all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. There are a few exceptions, but the pattern is pretty clear. One can only suppose that the Romans much have had a lot of good middle level administrators or the whole thing would have come crashing down. Or perhaps Suetonius's love of a good tale results in an over emphasis on gore, after all just getting on with the job wouldn't make for a very interesting story. Still Suetonius is considered to be a reliable source.
In Robert Grave's translation the work is very readable and as well as some chilling studies of growing insanity the book is full of interesting little asides. For example, for a quick action Augustus would say 'Quicker than boiled asparagus', or Vespasian, who comes over as an exceptionally good and sane ruler, demonstrated a dry wit to the very end by saying on his death bed 'Dear Me, I must be turning into a god'. Julies Caesar, we are told, 'collected the huge skeletons of extinct sea and land monsters popularly known as 'Giants' Bones'; and the weapons of ancient heroes.'
Penguin Classics, 363 pages
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