SUETONIUS (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus). - Historian, b. around 75 A.D.; his birthplace is unknown. Under Trajan he was secretary of the imperial administration, and in that capacity he had the opportunity to consult the official documents that he often cites (ego in actis regorio...). In 122 he was relieved of his office and retired to private life; d. ca. 160.
He wrote: Prata, of an encyclopedic character, lost; Roma, of a historical character, likewise lost; De viris illustribus, which survives with lacunae, divided into five books dedicated respectively to poets, orators, historians, philosophers, grammarians and rhetoricians; there remain the biographies of Terence, Horace and Lucan (lacunose), of Passienus Crispus, of Pliny the Elder (lacunose) and 25 lives from the section on grammarians and rhetoricians. His most important work is the De Vita Caesarum, in eight books, which contains the biographies, of the Alexandrian type, of the first 6 emperors, from Caesar to Domitian, written in 120, valuable for its information, objective and well documented. Composed in the manner of a biography, it lacks synthetic views and does not shine for literary elegance, although it is not wanting in correctness and sobriety of form; but it is most useful as a historical source and as factual confirmation of the profound psychological analysis that Tacitus makes of certain emperors.
S. is of interest to the history of Christianity for the brief but severe judgment he gives of the Christians: « genus hominum superstitionis novae ac maleficæ » which reproduces the hostile one common to the whole populace, which precisely 1) hated superstitions, that is, for a Roman, whatever is foreign to the norm established by the official religion; 2) and hated them all the more the newer they were, that is, the more they differed from what was legitimized by ancient religious tradition; and furthermore of a maleficent character, that is, not unconnected with occult practices of magic, with incantations. There is no need to demonstrate the falsity of these accusations, whose baselessness Pliny at the same time asserted in his letter to Trajan; they serve only to document the hostility of the Roman milieu toward the new religion.
Another passage of S. relating to Christianity is the one concerning the dispute between the Jews and the followers of Chrestus
(= χριστός, that is, the Messiah), a dispute that persuaded Claudius to expel them from Rome: « Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit » (Claud., 25). The expulsion took place around 49, at which time, therefore, a Christian community already existed in Rome which the pagan milieu scarcely distinguished from the Jews.
Bibliography12 works
Nicola Turchi