The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, CompleteSuetonius
History
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
Suetonius
Emperors -- Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-284 A.D.
Upon the plan of those Memoirs, he afterwards composed a Latin poem in
three books, in which he carried down the history to the end of his
exile, but did not publish it for several years, from motives of
delicacy. The three books were severally inscribed to the three Muses;
but of this work there now remain only a few fragments, scattered in
different parts of his other writings. He published, about the same
time, a collection of the principal speeches which he had made in his
consulship, under the title of his Consular Orations. They consisted
originally of twelve; but four are entirely lost, and some of the rest
are imperfect. He now published also, in Latin verse, a translation of
the Prognostics of Aratus, of which work no more than two or three small
fragments now remain. A few years after, he put the last hand to his
Dialogues upon the Character and Idea of the perfect Orator. This
admirable work remains entire; a monument both of the astonishing
industry and transcendent abilities of its author. At his Cuman villa,
he next began a Treatise on Politics, or on the best State of a City, and
the Duties of a Citizen. He calls it a great and a laborious work, yet
worthy of his pains, if he could succeed in it. This likewise was
written in the form of a dialogue, in which the speakers were Scipio,
Laelius, Philus, Manilius, and other great persons in the former times of
the Republic. It was comprised in six books, and survived him for
several ages, though it is now unfortunately lost. From the fragments
which remain, it appears to have been a masterly production, in which all
the important questions in politics and morality were discussed with
elegance and accuracy.
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