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Suetonius: Nero, Second Edition (BCP Latin Texts)

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Suetonius (c.70-after 130) was a famous historian who might have been born in Hippo Regius (Algeria). He was educated at Rome and was an eyewitness of the events towards the end of Domitian's reign. After Domitian's death he entered into somesort of relationship with Pliny the Younger. Suetonius seems to have had a career of advocate as well as some early writing. Most likely through the influence of Pliny, Suetonius became a bibliothecis, a position that supervised the public libraries at Rome. We are unsure when he wrote the biographic 12 Lives, and it was surprising that he used this format since the bibliographic style was considered lower than historiography. Suetonius' style reflects his rejection of explicit moralizing, highly colored descriptive writing, and dramatic presentation of crises which abound in contemporary history writing of the day.

The sources for Suetonius' life of Nero are a major problem for historians since much seems to have been hearsay, perhaps some from a lost life of Agrippina, or a common source that Tacitus, Dio Cassius, and Suetonius used that no longer exists. Regardless, the account is rife with small details (bracelets with snake skins, secret, brother-sister relationships, passwords etc), incredulous stories, mixed up with some important historical information. Because of the scandalous nature of the text, it became widely known during the Renaissance and to this day. B.H Warmington's introduction covers Suetonius' Style, what is known about the historian's life, Suetonius' Sources, and his bibliography format.

The Latin text of the Nero segment present in this volume (NO ENGLISH TRANSLATION - check out Oxford's world classics - The Live of the Caesars) has ample notes. However, these ONLY address (as stated in the beginning) historical information that the reader might not know but are important to comprehension. There are almost NO notes that pertain to the bizarre LATIN constructions, word usage, Greek lines, and sometimes convoluted and structurally unsound sections present all over in the text. For example, the word emptor (used to describe a relative of Nero) is listed in a Latin dictionary as a purchaser when in actuality the contemporary legal sense of the word meant executor, which has an entirely different and not so negative connotation. I understand that the editor states that this edition is not meant to analyze Suetonius' Latin or literary merit, but it would have been a very welcome and very useful addition.

All in all, the biography of Emperor Nero is hilarious sometimes to the point of belly aching yet difficult (ablative absolutes introducing main clauses, nouns that act like verbs, random Greek lines etc) text that all advanced Latin students should read.