- Title
- Suetonius De Poetis: the project and the life of Vergil
- Creator
- Lindsay, Hugh
- Relation
- Classicum Vol. 35, Issue 1, p. 2-7
- Relation
- http://classics.org.au/classicum/index.html
- Publisher
- Classical Association of New South Wales
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2009
- Description
- A letter addressed by Pliny to the biographer suggests that Suetonius was rather slow to start his publication career. Suetonius was born in about AD 69, and at the date of the letter in AD 105 would have been close to 36, when he is described as hesitant to publish (Plin. Ep. 5.10: in eden do haesitator). Most authorities assume that this means he had not produced anything at this stage, perhaps reading too much into Pliny's incitement to publication. A lengthy publication list is provided in the Byzantine Suda and this is generally attributed to the period after AD 105, and thus all his writings are seen as the works of a mature man. As for subject matter, the list in the Suda has led to comparisons with the encyclopaedic range of a Varro in the Ciceronian period. Nevertheless, despite this prodigious production, not a single work by Suetonius has survived undiminished. Even the virtually complete lives of the Caesars have lost some introductory material. The De Poetis formed a part of a large work on illustrious men, the De Viris lllustribus. Kaster suggests the work in its entirety consisted of well over 100 lives. Headings appear to have been poets, historians, orators, philosophers and teachers (grammarians and rhetoricians). Best preserved are the lives of grammarians and rhetoricians, the De grammaticis et rhetoribus, but even this has lost its conclusion. Traditionally the De Viris Illustribus has been dated to the period AD 107-118. There is evidence in the life of Horace which suggests that already at the time of publication of the De Poetis, the biographer had an interest in the post of ab epistulis, which he did not gain until the age of Hadrian (after AD 117). Suetonius mentions Augustus' offer to Horace of appointment as a private secretary. The post, never taken up by Horace, is of interest as an early equestrian precedent for Suetonius' own role as ab epistulis, a similar but not identical offices Equestrians only began to be appointed as ab epistulis on a regular basis with the appointment of Titinius Capito in about AD 95. Perhaps the strong emphasis on this unfulfilled part of Horace's career is a sign that the poet's life was written after Suetonius himself had become ab epistulis at the court of Hadrian. Thus I have previously suggested and reiterate that the De Viris lllustribus is Hadrianic, and the Caesares were written after the short lives. If this interpretation is accepted, it certainly makes Suetonius a busy man if he was sacked by Hadrian as early as AD 122 (HA Hadr. 11.3). It is more plausible to place the sacking later, perhaps in AD 128, as I have argued elsewhere. Even so this would only allow about 10 years for all his biographical projects. The biographies on this basis would all have been written when Suetonius was in his 50s.
- Subject
- Suetonius De Poetis; Pliny; Ciceronian period; Caesars
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/916649
- Identifier
- uon:8058
- Identifier
- ISSN:0155-0659
- Language
- eng
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