Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/943

Rh SUETONIUS. Praetorio, Suetonius Tranquillus, and many others, on the ground of associating with Sabina the emperor's wife, without his pennission, and ap- parently during the emperor's absence in Britain, on terms of more familiarity than was consistent with respect to the imperial household. (Spartian. Hadrian, c. 11). Suetonius wrote many works, a list of which is given in Suidas (s. v. TpajKuWos), De Ludis Graecorum, lib. i. ; De Spectaculis et Certamini- bus Romanorum, libri ii. ; De Anno Romano, lib, i. ; De Notis, on the notae or marks used in writing, which may have been a treatise on the Roman short hand ;^ De Ciceronis Republica ; De Nominibus propriis et de Generibus Vestinm ; De Vocibus mali ominis; De Roma ejusque Institutis et Moribus, libri ii. ; Historiae Caesarum, libri Octo ; Stem- ma illustrium Romanorum. Pie also wrote some other works of which fragments have been dis- covered : De Regibus, libri iii. ; De Institutione Officiorum ; De Rebus Variis ; and others. There are still extant, and attributed to Suetonius, Vitae Duodecira Caesarum, or the twelve Imperators, of whom the first is C. Julius Caesar and the last is Domitian ; Liber de illustribus Grammaticis ; and Liber de claris Rhetoribus ; neither of which is contained in the list of Suidas ; Vita Terentii, Ho- ratii, Persii, Lucani, Juvenalis, Plinii Majoris, which also are not included in the catalogue of Suidas. The chief work of Suetonius is his lives of the Caesars which, as it appears, were sometimes distri- buted in eight book8,as they are in some manuscripts. The authorities which he followed for the several lives have been diligently examined by Augustus Krause (De Sueionii Tranquilli Fontibus et Auctori- taie, Berlin, 1841). Krause gives some reasons for supposing that Suetonius consulted the historical writings of Tacitus, and he argues, that as Tacitus did not write his annals before A. D, 117, in which year Hadrian succeeded Trajan, Suetonius did not write the lives of the Caesars before A. n. 120. This is not very satisfactory, though it must be ad- mitted that there are many expressions in Suetonius, which closely resemble the expressions in Tacitus ; and Suetonius, a grammarian (grammaticus), was likely enough to copy particular phrases. Indeed Suetonius often quotes Senatusconsulta and other documentary evidence in the very words, which Tacitus as a general rule did not. These lives of Suetonius are not and do not aifect to be historical: they are rather anecdotical, and in the nature of Memoires pour servir. His authorities are the writings of the Roman emperors themselves and those of their freedmen, Epistolae, Orationes, Testa- ments, and other documents of that kind ; public documents, as Senatusconsulta, Fasti, inscriptions, and the Acta of the Senate and the people ; also the Greek and Roman writers on Roman history. He also learned much from conversation with those who were older than himself, and he would know something of Titus and Domitian at least, as he was a young man during their reign, Suetonius does not follow the chronological order in his Lives, but he groups together many things of the same kind, as he says himself {Augustus, c, 9). His language is very brief and precise, sometimes ob- scure, without any affectation of ornament. He certainl}-- tells a prodigious number of scandalous anecdotes about the Caesars, but there was plenty to tell about them ; and if he did not choose to SUFENAS. 9S1 suppress those anecdotes which he believed to be true, that is no imputation on his veracity. As a great collection of facts of all kinds, the work on the Caesars is invaluable for the historian of this period. His judgment and his honesty have both been attacked by some modern critics ; but we are of the same opinion as Krause that on both grounds a careful study of his work will justify him. The friendship of the younger Plinius is evidence in favour of the integrity of Suetonius, and Vopiscus, no great authority, it is true, calls him a most accurate and impartial writer ( Flav. Vopisc. Firmus, c, 1 ; compare the Life of Probus, c. 2). Those who attack the credit of Suetonius must conduct the assault with more ability and judgment than H. Heisen in his absurd essay, entitled "Dissertatio de Imperatoria majestate a primis Historiae Augustae conditoribus indignis- sime habita." {Symbol. Lilt. Bremen, tom. ii. iii.) The treatise De Illustribus Grammaticis and that De Claris Rhetoribus are probably only parts of a larger work, for Hieronymus says in a letter to Desiderius, " I have written a treatise on illus- trious men from the time of the Apostles to our own age, imitating therein Tranquillus and the Greek ApoUonius." (Casaubon's note on the title of the work De Illustribus Grammaticis.) These two treatises contain a few biographical and other notices, that are occasionally useful. It has been conjectured that the few scanty lives of the Latin poets, already enumerated, belonged to a larger work De Poetis. If this conjecture be true, the short notice of the elder Plinius may not be by Suetonius, and Casaubon will not allow it to be his. But the opinion as to the book De Poetis is merely a conjecture. A work entitled De Viris Illustribus, which has been attributed both to Suetonius and the younger Plinius, is now unani- mously assigned to Aurelius Victor. The editions of Suetonius are very numerous. Before A. D. 1500, fifteen editions had appeared, a proof that the Lives of the Caesars were favourite reading. The oldest edition with a date is that of Rome, 1470, folio. The best of the early editions is that of I. Casaubon, Geneva, 1595, and Paris, 1610. A small edition by J. Schild, Leiden, 1647, contains a selection of useful notes. One of the most useful editions is that by P, Burmann, Amsterdam, 1736, 2 vols, 4to., with a selection of notes from the principal commentators, the fragments of Suetonius, inscriptions relating to the Caesars, tables of the coins of the Caesars, and a copious index. One of the latest editions is that of Baum- garten-Crusius, Leipzig, 1816, 3 vols. Bvo,, which was again edited by C. B. Hase, Paris, 1828, 2 vols. 8vo. There is an English translation of the Twelve Caesars by the industrious translator, Philemon Holland, London, 1606, folio. Besides these there are four other English translations, the last of which is by A, Thomson, London, 1796, 8vo,, "with annotations and a review of the government and literature of the different periods." There are trans- lations in Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Danish. Bahr's GescJiichte der Romisclien TMeratur con- tains the chief references for the literature of Sue- tonius. [G. L.l SUFE'NAS, M. NO'NIUS, wag tribune of the plebs in B. c. 56, and in conjunction with his colleagues C. Cato and Procilius, prevented the 3o 2