The Lives of the Caesars - Hardcover

A masterful new translation of Suetonius' renowned biography of the twelve Caesars, bringing to life a portrait of the first Roman emperors in stunning detail

The ancient Roman empire was the supreme arena, where emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle. To rule as a Caesar was to stand as an actor upon the great stage of the world. No biography invites us into the lives of the Caesars more vividly or intimately than that by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, written from the centre of Rome and power, in AD 121.

Key Features of Suetonius' Biography:

• Historical Context: Placing each Caesar in the context of the generations that had gone before, and connecting personality with policy.
• Humanizing the Caesars: Suetonius injected flesh and blood into their stories, showcasing their shortfalls, foreign policy crises, and sex scandals.
• Immersive Details: We are shown their tastes, their foibles, their eccentricities; we sit at their tables and enter their bedrooms.
• Timeless Drama: These biographies continue to inform how we understand the drama of power today.

That Rome lives more vividly in people's imagination than any other ancient empire owes an inordinate amount to Suetonius. Now, award-winning author and translator Tom Holland brings us even closer in a new, spellbinding translation.

Giving a deeper understanding of the personal lives of the Caesars and how they inevitably shaped events across the vast expanse of the empire, The Lives of the Caesars is an astonishing, immersive experience of a time and culture at once familiar and utterly alien to our own.