Customer Reviews

The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics)

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The Twelve Caesars was the first ancient book I ever read. Before then I had only known Classical history from the books written by modern day historians. In the intervening years I have read many other primary sources from this period, but Suetonius's work still stands as the richest and most readable look on Rome's Emperors.

Suetonius recounts the successes and failures as well as the private lives of the first twelve rulers of Rome after the fall of the Republic . He begins with Julius Caesar, then discusses Augustus at length before covering Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

What makes the book a joy to read are the inclusion of many fascinating anecdotes - many of them are highly amusing, disgusting, bizarre or funny.
He tells us about Caesar's embarassment about his baldhead, Claudius's mocked fight with a giant whale at the port of Ostia, Augustus's love of having the hairs on his legs flattened by warm walnuts and Caligula's ban on the mention of goats in his presence. These descriptions help bring the old emperors to life - You'll never see them in the same light the next time you see a solemn bust of Galba or Domitian at a museum.

Suetonius has often been considered an unreliable witness by many historians, but Michael Grant discusses the veracity of his work at the beginning of the book, showing us that the old court historian was much more reliable and less biased than many would suppose.

Robert Graves's translation is wonderful. The text is lucid and very readable. Graves would go on to use the information gained from this work to write his seminal novels 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God', which were made into a highly acclaimed series in 1976.

The book also contains genealogical tables, maps, a discussion on coin portraits, a glossary of unfamiliar Roman terms, a Chronological table of the reigns of the emperors, a Key to place names (ancient and modern), a further reading list, and an index.

This is a must have for anyone interested in the early history of the Roman Empire, or anyone who loves Classical civilisation.

Alot of the history of Romes Caesars taught today is based on Suetonius' accounts, this book pulls no punches in its storys of 12 men who held absolute power over much of the civilised world. Its telling of Augustus' rule ( in my opinion Romes greatest Caesar) is fascinating, it is of course very pleasing to have a contemporery account of imperial Rome and suetonius gives us a rich source of information, his writings include many anecdotes which are both funny and crude, so its not to everyones taste, however we are hard pressed, i think, to find a better volume on the 12 caesars of Rome. A right riveting read.The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics)

This is great.
Sordid stories about 12 characters who all seem to have their good points, but for whom most are outweighed by the bad. Makes you wonder how the empire ever functioned.
Starts with Julius Caesar and works its way through Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian etc. This isn't a book for prudes.
A simpler read than Tacitus The Annals of Imperial Rome (Classics) and generally a lot more fun.

This book may be 2,000 years old but it's still a good read.

It's surpisingly fresh and great fun.

If you have even a passing interest in Ancient Rome then this is a must read.

Don't be put off just because the book is old. Read it! You won't regret it.

Okay I probably looked a bit odd on the beach reading this amidst a sea of `sleb' biographies, but it turned out to be a real pleasure and nowhere near as tricky as I had imagined. It was both eye opening and shocking in its account of vile brutality, sadism and insanity, but you cannot call yourself even an amateur historian without a passing acquaintance with Seutonius. It's one of the easiest classics you will come across and worth the time.

A contemporary account of the lives of 12 of the Caesars from Julius onwards. Spoiled in this Penguin version by a overly academic translation, but anyway not as good as Tacitus or as useful as a good modern history would be.

Suetonius was writing at the time of Emperor Hadrian in around 100 AD and naturally assumes that his readers have a body of background knowledge about the Roman constitution, customs and nomenclature. He rattles through the names of important and relevant contemporary figures - Pompey, Lepidus, and so forth - but then unwittingly confuses the modern reader by referring to several more souls with the same names but without explanation of who they are. It's all rather hard work requiring extensive reliance on the notes at the back and here is where the book fails in its updated `James B Rives' form; the original 1950's Robert Graves translation for Penguin tried to help the reader out by modernising the text and by adding extra words to make the meaning clear. Crucially, Graves was a poet and not a scholar so he was more interested in conveying meaning that in the strict accuracy of his translation. But Rives is a professor of classics in the US and has disastrously but proudly reverted to a strict translation, thereby forcing the reader to rely on the notes at the back. It's a rubbish formula that reduces this to a source textbook instead of a ripping yarn.

Rives has created a grindingly awful reading experience of flicking backwards and forwards between the notes, the text, the glossary and the maps and tables. This was one of the first classical texts printed as a Penguin Classic and frankly it deserves better. It should be available as a deluxe edition in colour with expanded notes side-by side with the text and photographs, maps and so on and contained in the body of the book. Graves' text should be restored. Penguin has published a deluxe edition of the tale of Genji so the idea has been used elsewhere and I'm sure it would work here.

If you are new to the history of imperial Rome, you should avoid this book and instead either try something like Robert Graves I Claudius and Claudius the God for a fictionalised (but very accurate) account of this period or take a contemporary and readable history from the bookshelves. If you are determined to read original source material then Tacitus's Annuls of Imperial Rome is an easier and better laid out read than Suetonius.

If you do give Suetonius a try, then you will find it a lively account of the deeds of the Caesars from Julius to Domitian. A lot of the text comprises quick lists of battles won, important posts held and other achievements. He then moves on to their misdeeds, which I suspect is the main reason for reading him. They make awful but compelling reading but sit out of context with what else was going on or who was agitating politically, so whilst its pretty clear that some rotten stuff was happening its not obvious how much was done to shut down political opposition and how much was simply amoral. Procopius's Secret History (of Justinian) is an even more salacious read but does provide enough balance to begin to make these kinds of judgments.

This is one for serious students of ancient classics. Others will get more from a sympathetic modern update of the same period.

not being a scholar I was curious about this man suetonious, having seen his name in a review about julius caesar, and found it to be very interesting book , with bite sized information by an eye witness of those times. and do reccomend this as an interesting taster on the lives of the caesars.

Very readable translation of this classic and great bed time reading. Essential reading for anyone interested in Roman history, or reading the Falco series.

A very interesting exposure of life in those times .and a clear explanation of daily activities in Rome and the Empire in its early years after civil war and the break up of the Republic

Can only read a bit at a time, but informative and gives clear facts about the line of Caesars. Thanks you