The Lives of the Twelve Caesars

Translated by Alexander Thomson

De vita Caesarum (Latin, direct translation: On the Life of the
Caesars) commonly known as The Twelve Caesars, is a set of twelve
biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire
written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus.

The work, written in 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, was the
most popular work of Suetonius, at that time Hadrian's personal secretary, and
is the largest among his surviving writings. It was dedicated to a friend, the
Praetorian prefect Gaius Septicius Clarus.

The Twelve Caesars is considered very significant in antiquity and
remains a main source on Roman history. The book discusses the significant and
critical period of the Principate from the end of the Republic to the reign of
Domitian; comparisons are often made with Tacitus whose surviving works document
a similar period.

— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.