Bøger af Suetonius

Suetonius' most important surviving work is known as the De Vita Caesarum, a set of twelve biographies of the successive Roman rulers. The emperor Nero's reign is one weird tale of sexual depravity and extravagant sadism. He was a gifted musician, and is said to have given great concerts of which attendance was compulsory; women were said to have given birth during the performance, and men were driven to fake death to escape. Nero kicked his pregnant wife to death and then had a young boy castrated to replace her as his spouse; then, during the great fire of Rome, he is said to have played the lyre to emphasize the beauty of the destruction. His eccentricities are a continuation of the tradition of his predecessors, only more perverted; Suetonius' account portray a strange man in strange times.

Suetonius' most important surviving work is known as the De Vita Caesarum, a set of twelve biographies of the successive Roman rulers. The emperor Caligula was one of the strangest and cruelest rulers that ever lived, and most of what is known about his reign comes from Suetonius. The first six months of his reign appear to have been moderate and successful; but after that, he fell into a spiral of sadism, sexual perversity, and plain insanity that made him one of the most hated tyrants of all time. His biography gathers many extravagant anecdotes, from naming his horse consul to calling people to his palace in the middle of the night just to play a strange game of fright with them. He was eventually assassinated, but not before many strange omens predicted the event, according to Suetonius.