The Lives of the Caesars (2025 translation by Tom Holland, English) Add a review

De vita Caesarum (Latin; lit. "On the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as The Twelve Caesars or The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire during the Principate. The subjects are Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.

The Twelve Caesars was written in 121 AD by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (called "Suetonius" by scholars) while he served as a personal secretary to the emperor Hadrian. Suetonius dedicated the work to his friend Gaius Septicius Clarus, a praetorian prefect.

The Twelve Caesars was a large and significant work in its day. It, along with the works of Tacitus, it has become a useful extant primary source for Classics scholars.