I9I3.] ROLFE— SUETONIUS AND HIS BIOGRAPHIES. 225 



the contrary.^" In reality these details are presented with the same 

 judicial coldness which is characteristic of his work in general, and 

 he cannot be called obscene in the sense in which we may apply that 

 term to Martial and Juvenal, for example. His discussion of such 

 matters is undeniably plain and frank, but it must be remembered 

 that the ancient conception of pudicitia was very different from the 

 modern one.^^ Moreover the feeling which to-day leaves certain of 

 his chapters in the original Latin or expresses them in veiled lan- 

 guage is of comparatively recent date. Holland, for instance, in 

 1606 found no embarrassment in translating Suetonius into the 

 frankest English and dedicating his book " To the Right Honorable 

 and \'"ertuous Ladie Harington." 



While it is obvious that we must regard the " Lives of the 

 Csesars " more or less in the light of a work of fiction, it deserves 

 to be read as our best and most characteristic specimen of Roman 

 biography, albeit with an open mind and in a spirit of scholarly 

 scepticism. 



^ This subject will be discussed at another time. 

 " See Julius, 49, i. 



