Teaching Ancient Biography
by Dr. Margaret Cotter-Lynch, Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Original text © 2005. Margaret Cotter-Lynch.
Suetonius: Nero
What assumptions does Suetonius make of his readers?
To what degree are these assumptions valid for you?
I. The “Life of Nero” seems different from other Lives we have read by Suetonius
a. Suetonius, in writing this story, seems less objective and more judgemental
b. The organization by subject seems less clear
c. If we still want to characterize texts as description or argument, Suetonius here starts to look like Plutarch, explicitly making an argument
d. What gives us this impression of difference?
i. Nero was a terrible person, but so was Caligula
ii. How much of the difference is in Suetonius’ writing style, and how much of the difference is in our reactions?
II. Suetonius’s structure in “Nero”
a. Family origins: p. 213-215
i. More detailed than usual, because more explanatory of Nero (p. 213)
ii. Almost Plutarch-esque: assertion and evidence regarding Nero’s father, p. 215
iii. Unlike Caligula, we know from the beginning that Nero will be bad. From now on, we will be reading the text looking for proof/evidence of what we already know.
iv. At the same time, Nero seems almost excused for his actions: it’s not his fault, he had a bad family, and bad omens. Nero seems inevitable.
1. This throws into question the very idea of a value judgement: can you judge someone who is not in control of his own destiny?
2. “Terrible” becomes not a judgement, but an objective statement of fact
3. Suetonius’ saying that Nero is terrible, in this context, seems like a description, not an argument.
b. Childhood:
i. We see more omens (implying supernatural control of the situation)
ii. Nero seems repeatedly put into bad situations, e.g. being tutored by a dancer and a barber on p. 216
c. Entry into public life and accession to power:
i. At first, Nero doesn’t seem so bad. On pg. 218, he’s said to have “virtuous intentions.” But given what we’ve already been told, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.
ii. By our modern standards, Nero at this point seems nice
1. He doesn’t like to execute criminals
2. He decrees that no one should be killed during gladatorial games
iii. Nero is also, at this point, exceptionally young
1. He becomes emperor at age 17
2. On p. 219, he has his first shave
iv. We are given more examples of reasonable, effective government, to pg. 222
d. Here Suetonius breaks his habitual structure
i. For Caligula: break in good vs. bad corresponded to public vs. private behavior
ii. For Nero, Suetonius organizes based upon a value judgement which does not correspond to his defined topics
1. For Nero, all good things have to do with government
2. For Nero, bad things include both personal and governmental actions
III. Suetonius’ value judgements and his assumptions about his readers
a. With Caligula, Suetonius did not make an explicit argument. He merely presented, albeit at length, the facts of Caligula’s life, and assumed (rightly, in my case) that his reader would independently come to the conclusion that Caligula was terrible.
b. With Nero, Suetonius still assumes that his reader will agree with his value judgements, but this time he is a bit more explicit about what those judgements are. The problem is, with Nero, I don’t always agree with Suetonius
i. Suetonius lists persecuting Christians among the good things Nero did (p. 221). I, personally, don’t think you should persecute people for being Christian, or any other religion. Therefore, this is a striking place where Suetonius and I don’t share the same values.
ii. Suetonius lists Nero’s love for singing and the theater as bad things. Suetonius doesn’t seem to like that Nero enjoyed horseback riding, either (p. 222-227). In fact, he goes on about all of this at some length, as if it positively proves how terrible Nero was. I say, a 17 year old kid likes horses and wants to join the drama club, that sounds just fine to me. There are certainly plenty of reasons why I don’t like Nero, but the fact that he liked to sing, or even that he (reportedly) sang badly, is not one of them (violently punishing people who sang better than him, for instance, in inexcusable. But the problem’s the punishment, not the singing).
iii. Obviously, Suetonius was writing in a vastly different time and different culture than the one in which I am reading—in second century Rome, there was no such thing as religious freedom, and this particular 17-year-old, at least, should have been ruling the world rather than going to the theater. These differences, however, highlight how, even while he often presents himself as objective, Suetonius still has clear biases when he writes a biography. We can agree or disagree with the impression he gives of a person (in which a judgement is usually implicit), but we should do so consciously.
c. Eventually, Suetonius turns to talking about things that we likely do all agree are terrible (p. 227 ff.)
i. Suetonius here mixes his categories of government and private behavior, because in Nero’s case, one effects the other
1. This gets at last week’s in-class writing assignment: in at least some, if not all cases (and it certainly does with Nero), personal character affects the way someone rules.
2. For Nero, these two categories are so intertwined that it’s hard to imagine how Suetonius could have separated them, as he does in the case of other emperors.
3. The end of Nero’s rule, p. 238-245, demonstrates this. Nero is described as a force of nature, implying that his personality and the way he ruled are all part of the same package.
d. Suetonius returns to his usual categories on p. 245, telling us about Nero’s appearance, etc.
i. We do get one final hint of Suetonius’ bias on page 247, when he tells us that some people liked Nero. For us as readers, this seems shocking and inexplicable, since Suetonius has shown us nothing to make us think that anyone might have liked Nero for any reason, ever.
Assignment: for next time, read Suetonius, “Life of Vespasian.” How do we tell the difference between a good emperor and a bad one?
