The _Vita Caroli Magni_ was written as an expression of the author's gratitude to his royal friend and patron, though it did not appear until shortly after the latter's death in 814. "It contains the history of a very great and distinguished man," says Einhard in his preface, "but there is nothing in it to wonder at, besides his deeds, except the fact that I, who am a barbarian, and very little versed in the Roman language, seem to suppose myself capable of writing gracefully and respectably in Latin." It is considered ordinarily that Einhard endeavored to imitate the style of the Roman Suetonius, the biographer of the first twelve Caesars, though in reality his writing is perhaps superior to that of Suetonius and there are scholars who hold that if he really followed a classical model at all that model was Julius Caesar. Aside from the matter of literary style, there can be no reasonable doubt that the idea of writing a biography of his master was suggested to Einhard by the biographies of Suetonius, particularly that of the Emperor Augustus. Despite his limitations, says Mr. Hodgkin, the fact remains that "almost all our real, vivifying knowledge of Charles the Great is derived from Einhard, and that the _Vita Caroli_ is one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages."[119] Certainly few mediaeval writers had so good an opportunity as did Einhard to know the truth about the persons and events they undertook to describe. Source--Einhard, _Vita Caroli Magni_ ["Life of Charles the Great"], Chaps. 22-27. Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., pp. 455-457. Adapted from translation by Samuel Epes Turner in "Harper's School Classics" (New York, 1880), pp. 56-65. [Sidenote: Personal appearance]