The Beliefs Of Morality In Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars

While Suetonius’ work, The Twelve Caesars, dedicated more of his writing to the gossip surrounding the lives of the Caesars that many contemporary historians would approve of, this was not done without justification. Suetonius saw a direct connection between the private behaviors of a ruler, and their overall political effectiveness. Those Caesars who were perceived as pillars of integrity within their personal life were thought to be more able rulers than their deviant cohorts. In particular Suetonius saw a connection between the effectiveness as the sovereign and the private behavior of the individual man including, his relationship with religion, his personal pastimes, and even his personality.
Traditional religion in Rome would eventually

Following the commonality of ancient historians to present characters that were either exceptional or inadequate, with little or no options in between, Suetonius would use the way that each Caesar spent much of his personal time to evidence his greater point of their ability to rule. Perhaps one glaring example can be seen in the justification of any possible negative actions that were attested to one of the ruler’s that Suetonius saw as favorable, that of the greediness of Vespasian, whom Suetonius states “some claim that greed was in Vespasian 's very bones.” This negative aspect of this ruler that Suetonius approved of is quickly disregarded, as being trivial to his overall ability to rule. Other Caesars did not receive the same idealistic treatment from Suetonius, and for these men each pastime was scrutinized as evidence of their inability as a

This is evident in the biography of Divus Vespasian, whom Suetonius saw as being a man of upstanding character. Vespasian’s biography stands out as being one of overwhelming positive approval from the ancient historian. Mentions are made to his clemency and his work effort. Perhaps one of the most telling parts of Vespasian’s persona is the mention of how he “was nearly always just as good-natured, cracking frequent jokes.” Especially as the writings on Vespasian are rather short, it is telling that this attention to specific aspects of personality are