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APPENDIX OF AUTHORS AND WORKS
SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, GAIUS
LIFE
b. c. A.D. 70. Birthplace uncertain. After practising as a lawyer devoted himself to
writing. Declined a military tribunate; obtained (though childless) the ius trium
liberorum from Trajan through Pliny. Appointed secretary under Trajan and Hadrian,
but dismissed 121/122 along with Septicius Clarus (dedicatee of De vita Caes.). d. later,
perhaps much later, than A.D. 122. Sources: Suet. Cal. 19.3, Nero 57.2, Otho 10.1,
Dom. 12.2, De gramm. et rhet. 4.9 (background); Pliny, Epist. 1.18 (lawyer), 1.24
possibly a schoolmaster), 3.8 (tribunate), 5.10 (slow to publish), 9.34 (P. asks about
public recital of his verses), 10.94—5 (ius t.L); Hist. Aug. Hadr. 11.3 (secretary, dismissal);
Ioh. Lyd. De mag. 2.6 (dedication to Clarus). See E. Marec and H. G. Pflaum,
'Nouvelle inscription sur la carriere de Suetone, l'historien', Comptes rendus de I'acad.
des inscr. 1952, 76—85, A.E. 1953, no. 73; J. A. Crook, ' Suetonius'ab epistulis',
/ > .C./'A..y.n.s.4(i956-7) 18-22;R.Syme, 7W«/.r(Oxford 1958)7786*!.; G. B. Townend,
'The Hippo inscription and the career of Suetonius', Historia 10 (1961) 99—109.
WORKS
(1) De vita Caesarum: twelve biographies, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, in eight
books, complete except for opening chs. of first life. Bk. 1, and possibly others, perhaps
pubd 119-22. (2) De viris illustribus: numerous short biographies of persons eminent
in literature and education, arranged in classes, perhaps (i) poets, (ii) orators, (iii)
historians, (iv) philosophers, and (v) grammarians and rhetoricians. We have part of
the section De grammaticis et rhetoribus, independently transmitted. Some lives from
the De poetis are transmitted along with the poets themselves. Those of Terence,
Horace and Lucan seem clearly Suetonian, and Donatus* life of Virgil contains at least
some Suetonian material. Part of the life of the orator Passienus Crispus survives in
die scholia on Juv. 4.81, part of the elder Pliny's accompanies his Natural History, and
Jerome in his chronicle frequently draws on S. (3) Numerous treatises, some in Greek,
on a wide range of subjects, such as critical signs, the Roman year, Roman customs,
famous courtesans, and terms of abuse. Only occasional fragments remain. For further
details see Schanz-Hosius 111 58-64.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
TEXTS AND COMMENTARIES:TEXTS: C. L. Roth (BT, 1858). Devita Cues.:
M. Ihm (BT, ed. mai. 1907, ed. min. 1908). De gramm. et rhet.: A. Reifferscheid
(Leipzig i860: also the fragments); A. Brugnoli (BT, i960), COMMENTARIES: D. C. G.
Baumgarten-Crusius (Leipzig 1816-18). Julius: H. E. Butler and M. Cary (New
York-Oxford 1927). Augustus: E. S. Shuckburgh (Cambridge 1896); M. A. Levi
897
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