Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars is one of the most important sources for the early days of the Principate. Suetonius includes all sorts of fascinating biographical details about the men he describes--along with plenty of sometimes unverifiable gossip and rumor.For Thursday's class, please read Suetonius' account of Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius (Caligula), Claudius, or Nero. Pick a line that illustrates particularly well either the emperor's achievements or the way in which that emperor's life was a personal tragedy, or a tragedy for the people of Rome.
I chose a personal tragedy from an Emperor's life the line is “When the civil strife was subsequently renewed, and he was appointed one of Antony's lieutenants, he did not venture, owing to a sudden attack of illness, to accept the chief command when it was offered him by those who were ashamed of Cleopatra, nor yet positively to decline it; but he went over to Augustus and a few days later died. Even he did not escape with an unblemished reputation, for Antonius openly declared that he had changed sides from desire for the company of his mistress, Servilia Nais.” It's like being caught between hard place and a rock. Then to suddenly just die and without one's own reputation in the end.
ReplyDeleteChristina Girmme
"He so prostituted his own chastity that after defiling almost every part of his body, he at last devised a kind of game, in which, covered with the skin of some wild animal, he was let loose from a cage and attacked the private parts of men and women, who were bound to stakes...." This shows how far Nero had fallen since gaining power. It is written that he was a kind man and threw tons of entertainment for the people. As time went on how ever he left little to both secret and imagination. This spelled disaster for Rome as now they had another crazy man on the throne. Trent Dean
ReplyDeleteThe life of Caligula is interesting to say the least. The author tries in the beginning to give Caligula a decent reputation, but digs deep into the gritty details of his reign later in the article. One passage I found to be particularly savage towards the Roman people was:
ReplyDelete"When cattle to feed the wild beasts which he had provided for a gladiatorial show were rather costly, he selected criminals to be devoured, and reviewing the line of prisoners without examining the charges, but merely taking his place in the middle of a colonnade, he bade them be led away "from baldhead to baldhead."
Life didn't matter to Caligula. Even the pettiest of crimes could be used as an excuse for his cruelty and this passage does a wonderful job putting into perspective just how ruthless a ruler Caligula was. His reign was without a doubt, a tragedy for the Roman people.
-Zack Krage
From reading about Tiberius you get a good sense of what life was like for him. His life was a constant struggle. He wanted to be remembered by the Roman people much like his predecessors Caesar and Augustus. Tiberius was a great diplomat and was able to settle many disputes across the roman empire without using much force.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really hurt Tiberius though was that he was always paranoid. Tiberius had had so much taken from him throughout his whole life. His wife had been taken from him as well as many other things in his life. These things hurt Tiberius. Sieginus the Captain of the Pretorian guard was on a reign of terror throughout Rome and told Tiberius the best thing for him would be to leave Rome and go to Capri.
Tiberius was able to gain credibility in the end when he had Sieginus executed for what he did. Tiberius left as a great ruler and he was made a god much like Augustus and Caesar before him.