222 ROLFE— SUETONIUS AND HIS BIOGRAPHIES. [April 17, 



in his pages. The great JuHus appears as an unscrupulous poH- 

 tician, who aimed at supreme power from his earliest years and 

 regarded any means of attaining it as justifiable.'" He was ready 

 to join in any attempt at revolution which seemed to promise suc- 

 cess.'^ In spite of his moderate use of his victory and his many 

 plans for the welfare of the state, Suetonius apparently believes that 

 he deserved the fate which overtook him."- For Augustus and Titus 

 he has an evident admiration, yet his method does not allow him to 

 pass over the former's cold-blooded cruelty'^ and calculating seduc- 

 tion/* and the latter's violence, debauchery and shameless avarice.'^ 

 In fact, his conscientiousness leads him even to record charges which 

 he himself rejects. '** On the other hand, he scrupulously recounts the 

 good deeds and qualities of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian, 

 although it is evident enough that his general opinion of those emper- 

 ors is far from favorable. Vespasian fares best, for he is charged only 

 with penuriousness, and even this Suetonius is inclined to justify on 

 the ground of necessity. '^^ Perhaps the most dramatic career of the 

 whole series is that of the hard-headed, humorous Sabine, roused 

 to seek political preferment only by his mother's taunts,'^ and retain- 

 ing his simple habits and good common sense even after becoming 

 ruler of the state. He bitterly offended Nero by going to sleep or 

 leaving the theater while the emperor was singing,'^ was pelted with 

 turnips at Hadrumetum,®'' and daubed with mud by order of Caligula 

 for neglecting his duty of keeping the streets clean,*^ a fitting punish- 



'" Julius, 30, 5- 



"Julius, 3, 5, 8, 9, II. 



"Julius, 76, i: prsegravant tamen cetera facta dictaque eius, ut et abusus 

 dominatione et iure caesus existimetur. 



" Aug., 13, 27. 



'*Aug., 69, I. 



'® Titus 7 : constabat in cognitionibus patris nundinari praemiarique solitum. 



'* Claudius, i, 5. 



" Vesp., 16, 3. 



'* Vesp., 2, 2. 



■" Vesp., 4, 4. 



^ Vesp., 4, 3; Suetonius's naive sentence is worthy of a full quotation: 

 exim sortitus Africam integerrime nee sine magna dignatione administravit, 

 nisi quod Hadrumeti seditione quadam rapa in eum iacta sunt. 



" Vesp., 5, 3- 



