Suetonius Character And Leadership In Shakespeare's The Twelve Caesar

In his work The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius presents the reader with biographies of the prominent Caesars who ruled Rome. Suetonius was employed as secretary to Emperor Hadrian and due to this, had access to documents describing the Caesars lives. His account combines descriptions of the Caesars public lives, their military campaigns and their rule, as well as descriptions of their character and their personal lives. While he sometimes expresses his opinions within his writing, he tries to give his readers the full image of the Caesars including both their positive and negative attributes. To do this he, unlike other historians at that time, does not have a chronological approach to his writing but rather a thematic.
Suetonius wants the reader …show more content…
According to him a good leader is not only distinguished through his military victories but also through his governing, personality and character. Suetonius seems to favour the leadership of Augustus above the leadership of the other Caesars. In his writing on Augustus he prefers to stay somewhat neutral and form a conclusion on his leadership as he analyses the emperor’s life. In extreme contrast to this stand his depiction of Caligula and Nero. In his accounts of them he strongly expresses his dislike of their opulent lifestyle and their cruel nature. While he mostly refrains from this in his account of Julius, he does express more negative opinions on Julius’ character and leadership than he does on that of Augustus. When weighing both their negative and positive attributes, Suetonius finds that Augustus is superior to …show more content…
The major conclusions Suetonius wants his readers to draw are that the personal life and character of the Caseare are as important to their reign as their political decisions. He also wants to show both the negative and positive sides of the Caesars, since he does not believe that any of them were without their flaws. Lastly, omens and signs play an important role in Suetonius’ writing. He wants the reader to understand their importance and their ability to predict future outcomes. A major theme of his work is the issue of leadership. Suetonius seems to prefer Augustus’ leadership to the leadership of the other Caesars. He seems to believe that Augustus has the qualities that are necessary for a good leader, such as a somewhat humble and unassuming personality, no major character flaws that directly affect his reign and the desire to try to do what is best for the