Svetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus). — Historian, born c. AD 75; place of birth unknown. Under Trajan he served as secretary of the imperial administration, a position that gave him access to official documents, which he frequently cites (*ego in actis reperio*...). In 122 he was relieved of his office and retired to private life; he died c. AD 160.
He wrote: *Prata*, an encyclopedic work, now lost; *Roma*, a historical work, also lost; *De viris illustribus*, surviving in a fragmentary state, divided into five books devoted respectively to poets, orators, historians, philosophers, grammarians, and rhetoricians; the surviving biographies include those of Terence, Horace, and Lucan (fragmentary), Passienus Crispus, Pliny the Elder (fragmentary), and 25 lives from the section on grammarians and rhetoricians. His most important work is *De Vita Caesarum*, in eight books, containing biographies in the Alexandrian style of the first twelve emperors, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, written in 120. It is valuable for its factual information, objective and well-documented. Though lacking in synthetic insight and literary elegance, it is not without correctness and sobriety of form; yet it remains highly useful as a historical source and as factual confirmation of the profound psychological analysis Tacitus applies to certain emperors.
S. is of interest to Christian history for his brief but severe judgment of Christians: “a class of men addicted to a new and mischievous superstition,” which reflects the common hostility of the people, who 1) hated superstitions, that is, for a Roman, anything alien to the norms established by the official religion; 2) hated them all the more when they were new, i.e., deviating from what was sanctioned by ancient religious tradition; and moreover were of a malevolent character, i.e., not free from secret magical practices or incantations. There is no need to demonstrate the falsity of these accusations, which Pliny in his letter to Trajan at the same time declared to be unfounded; they merely serve to document the hostility of the Roman environment toward the new religion.
Another passage by S. relating to Christianity is the one concerning the conflict between the Jews and the followers of Chrestus (= Christ, *c.* AD 49), a conflict that persuaded Claudius to expel them from Rome: “Iudaeos impulsore Chrestō assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit” (*Claud.*, 25). The expulsion occurred c. AD 49, at which time, therefore, a Christian community already existed in Rome, which the pagan environment poorly distinguished from the Jews.