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



proceed according to his judgment to build his historical edifice." 

 It is one of the weaknesses of Ferrero's interesting and suggestive 

 work, that he now accepts the testimony of Suetonius and now re- 

 jects it as mere gossip, according to its relation to his own theories. 



One cannot but wonder somewhat at the freedom with which 

 a member of the imperial household*^ ventured to speak of the em- 

 perors of the past. It must be remembered, however, that Hadrian 

 had no family connection with the men of whom Suetonius writes, 

 and that the failings and vices of his predecessors made the virtues 

 of the reigning prince more conspicuous. But consistently with the 

 general plan of the work, we find no trace of that contrast of the 

 evil days of the past with the happy present which appears in the 

 third chapter of the " Agricola." We have only the very moderate 

 remark at the end of the " Life of Domitian," where after speaking 

 of the dream from which that emperor inferred a happier condition 

 of the state after his death, Suetonius says : " sicut sane breve evenit, 

 abstinentia et moderatione insequentium principum." 



Suetonius has been stigmatized as a scandal-monger and a man 

 of prurient mind. The former charge seems not to be justified. 

 He did, it is true, collect all the damning details which seemed to 

 him interesting, but even in the case of emperors like Caligula and 

 Nero he is equally conscientious in assembling all that can be said 

 in their favor. The so-called scandal-mongery is, in fact, a feature 

 of the development of realism in the writings of the imperial period^^ 

 and of an interest in all the details of the private life of promi- 

 nent men. 



The second charge is based in part on the accounts of the sexual 

 habits of the emperors, and in part on the fact that he wrote a work 

 " On Famous Courtesans." The latter argument may be dismissed 

 as unconvincing, since the work has not come down to us and we 

 have no means of knowing how the subject was treated. The 

 former no more convicts him of pruriency than the amusing stories 

 and witticisms which he has diligently collected justify us in credit- 

 ing him with a sense of humor, in spite of numerous indications to 



** The " Csesars " was published while Suetonius was Hadrian's secretary, 

 apparently in 120. 



*' See H. T. Peck, " Julius and Augustus," introd., pp. v ff. 



