Suetonius In Julius Caesar

Suetonius does a very good job of capturing what Rome was like. Rome in the early empire was a place of both civility and barbarianism. The citizens of the city were not that good at returning nutrients to the soil, and were more concerned about luxury trade, which identified your status. Although he does a good job with stating facts, Suetonius’ opinions came out from time to time when discussing the behavioral traits of Julius Caesar, Nero, and Vespasian. He believed that the proper and just use of the power of the Res publica is to have authority, be concerned with the greatness of Rome, and conduct things in such a manner that will benefit the citizens and generations to come. The reason I am saying this is because throughout his writings,

“Caesar was forced by sudden enemy sortie to jump into a rowing boat. So many of his men followed him that he dived into the sea, and swam 200 yards until he reached his nearest ship – holding his left hand above the water the whole way to keep certain documents dry, and towing his generals clock behind him with his teeth, to save this trophy from his opponents.” In this passage, Suetonius portrays Julius Caesar to be a very strong and courageous leader, and how he effortlessly, created followers based off of his personal courage. Suetonius valued the military. He goes into great depth to explain the good military work Caesar did. During his nine years of governorship, he was the first Roman to build a military bridge across the Rhine as well as fix, and doubled the pay of the Roman Soldiers. Suetonius saw this as a good use of power by Caesar, because it was a solid way to uphold the society. Throughout the civil war, Caesar was never defeated, and celebrated four triumphs within one month. This passage clearly shows that Caesar’s tactics were successful and it benefited the greater

He believed that not only does a man need to have authority over his people, but he also has to confidently be able to lead no matter what circumstances are thrown his way. Caesar was faced with bribery, being overwhelmed by power, and so many other things. Though the hardships were apparent and caused him to lose sight of himself, he concerned with the greatness of Rome. At the end of the day, to Suetonius, that was the bigger picture. The Roman Republic definitely experienced many trials and tribulations. The man who were put in charge of it, tried their best to succeed when it came to conducting things in such a manner that would benefit the citizens of Rome, but after each one of their reigns, it seemed as if once a new leader came into power, all of the hard worked that was established quickly plunged due to the inconsistency with the rules set in