Caesares

1.1. AUSONIUS TO HIS SON HESPERIUS, greeting. The Caesarean chiefs, into whose reigns the Roman power, with its consuls now ranked second, long ago passed — receive them, twice six, each marked by his own single line; whose names, deeds, life, and death Suetonius once accomplished in full through six books.

1.2. SINGLE LINES ON THE ORDER OF THE EMPERORS. First Julius Caesar opened the royal hall, and transcribed his name and his citadel to Augustus. After him reigns his stepson Nero Claudius (Tiberius); from him, the Caesar to whom the camp gave the surname of the soldier's boot (Caligula). Hence Claudius gains the realm; after whom savage Nero, the last of the sons of Aeneas. After him three, and not for three years: old Galba, vainly trusting in an inert partner; soft Otho, degenerate through luxury in an age of ill repute; and Vitellius, worthy neither of the throne nor of a man's death. To these the tenth, and summoned by fate, was Vespasian; and Titus, happy in the brevity of his reign; his brother followed, whom his own Rome called a bald Nero (Domitian).

1.3. SINGLE LINES ON THE LENGTH OF THEIR REIGNS. Julius, as they say, the divine, reigns three years. Augustus, after ten lustra (fifty years), prolongs it six years more; and Nero Claudius (Tiberius) adds two to thrice seven. A third winter ends the marauding times of Gaius (Caligula). Claudius draws out a double hebdomad (fourteen years), and dire Nero just as much, but lacked one of the full count as consul. Old Galba, wanton Otho, infamous Vitellius — a third summer did not know you reigning in Latium. Vespasian fulfils his fated decade. With Titus ruling thrice (three years), a new laurel girds Janus; fifteen times, while his brother holds the savage reins.

1.4. SINGLE LINES ON THE DEATH OF EACH. Julius Caesar perished, the senate raging. To Augustus a ripe old age added a place among the gods. Late and old, an exile at Capri, Nero (Tiberius) accomplished his fate. Soft Chaerea exacted punishment from the Caesar (Caligula). Claudius closed his fate with a doubtful poison. Nero the matricide endured the force of his own sword. Old Galba perished, laid low by savage Otho. Soon infamous Otho, but gaining a glorious death; the prodigal sceptres of Vitellius, doomed to perish, succeed. A praised reign, a gentle death for Vespasian. But Titus, the love of the world, is snatched away in his flourishing years; late but just atonements destroy the grievous brother (Domitian).

5.praef. Now both those foretold and those that follow by the lot of empire I shall set forth — those whom the succession of rule holds. I shall begin from the divine one and run through all in order, those whom I know, mindful of Roman history.

5.1. JULIUS CAESAR. The supreme power, which once was solemnly held by two consuls, Julius Caesar obtained. But the right of his reign was brief, held for a single three-year span: the savage faction of the armed gown struck him down.

5.2. OCTAVIUS AUGUSTUS. The avenger and successor thereafter, Octavius, the same a Caesar and more noble by the name of Augustus; a long-lived power, never violated by doubtful events, proved that a god had been set upon the earth.

5.3. TIBERIUS NERO. Having gained the praenomen of Tiberius, Nero passed the first seasons of his youth in a praised reign; thereafter, in vain shut up in the lonely cave of Capri, he believed that places hidden away betray the vices.

5.4. CAESAR CALIGULA. After him, with the camp-surname of the soldier's boot, the Caesar succeeded, more savage than the savage in disposition; thereafter stained with slaughters and incests, and one who surpassed his grandfather, polluted with every crime.

5.5. CLAUDIUS CAESAR. Claudius, whose life was mocked in his private days, in his reign showed forth a token of talent; yet, suffering the freedwomen's crimes and those of his wives, he was harmful not by doing, but by enduring.

5.6. NERO. He who was the sixth and last heir of the race of the sons of Aeneas, Nero, polluted and closed the rites of the Julian line. As many names as his piety has, so many crimes too his life has. Learn from Tranquillus (Suetonius): but it irks one to remember.

5.7. GALBA. Old man cheated of your hope, who, while a private man, seemed to deserve the sceptres, and, betrayed by your reign, proved their inferior: your fame was better while you were young; but it is a juster order to have pleased thereafter, and displeased before.

5.8. OTHO. About to wield sceptres that rivalled the polluted Nero's, Otho is overwhelmed, snatched by a swift death; yet he will be praiseworthy in his end, who, by a seemly death, did this one noble thing — that he perished.

5.9. VITELLIUS. Fierce in life, foul in death were you, Vitellius, and unworthy to become a Caesar: thus the fates please themselves. Yet the shadow of your rule was brief; because the rewards of the realm the unworthy often approach, but none save the worthy holds them.

5.10. VESPASIAN. Attentive to acquiring, agreeable in moderate use, Vespasian increases his wealth, yet does not repress it; he who once, in his private days, transferred a doubtful fame — a rare thing for others — as emperor to the better.

5.11. TITUS. Happy in his rule, happy in the brevity of his reigning, free of citizens' blood, the love of the world. One crime you said, when dying, that you had; but no one believed it of you, nor did you of yourself.

5.12. DOMITIAN. Thus far, Flavian race, you had given just lords. Why did the third snatch away what two had given? Hardly is it worth having had those, since the gifts of the good are brief; but the things that have harmed grieve us forever.

5.13. NERVA (Quatrains on the Caesars after Tranquillus). Next, the tyrant being slain, old Nerva guides the sceptres, a prince in name, in mind a father. The man had no offspring; adoption imitates a child, whom it is a joy to have chosen, and whom he would wish to have begotten.

5.14. TRAJAN. Trajan takes up the rule in his green age, foremost in the praise of war, having his father's other qualities. He too, lacking offspring, allies to himself by the lot of choosing one whom you would acknowledge good, but deny to be his equal.

5.15. HADRIAN. Hence Aelius (Hadrian) succeeded, distinguished in the midst of his deeds: a graver fame marks his beginnings and his end. He too was childless: to whom one will be joined who shall give proof how far the adopted excel those begotten.

5.16. ANTONINUS PIUS. Antoninus thereafter takes up the rule by the summons of the consuls, and is Pius, having a name of merit. To him fate gave no son; but, by the custom of his people, he took from his fatherland one to rule his fatherland.

5.17. MARCUS ANTONINUS. After, the guardianship is given to Marcus, who bent the precepts of Plato to the empire, better than his father Pius. Dying with his own successor, but a crooked prince, he harmed his fatherland in this one thing only — that he begot him.

5.18. COMMODUS. Commodus follows, stained with the fights of the arena, a prince stirring up wars with the Thracian sword; paying the penalty at last, his throat throttled, having confessed by his crimes his mother's adultery.

5.19. HELVIUS PERTINAX. Helvius, chosen by the judgement and resolve of the senate, a prince brought forth by decrees, not by zeal: which the ill-faithful cohort grieved, the error being proved — that the senate-house had yielded the empire to the camp.

5.20. DIDIUS JULIANUS. The gods be thanked, that Didius does not rejoice in the rich spoils of the sceptre, and that quickly the rewards were taken from the perjured old man. And you, father Severus, do not shudder at the title of one renewing it: your force does not seize the empire, but receives it.

5.21. SEVERUS PERTINAX. Tireless, Severus moves his arms from the chilly Hister, to take the realm from the parricide Didius. Punic was his origin; but one who proved by his valour that his place is no hindrance, when talent prevails.

5.22. BASSIANUS ANTONINUS, or CARACALLA. Unlike in valour to your father, and much more to him whose adoptive name you bear; guilty of your brother's death, punished by a bloody end — but more so, Caracalla, by the people's mockery.

5.23. OPILIUS MACRINUS. Hence the guardian of the prince, Macrinus, the inert, turned upon its author, by murder, the steel taken up in the Caesar's name. Soon he falls, with his offspring. Let one cease to assail his perfidy with grievous complaints: what he suffers, he deserved.

5.24. ANTONINUS HELIOGABALUS. Do you too defile the inner sanctuary of the Augustan seat, bearing the false names of the Antonines — you than whom never any monster more base, nor any more foul, sat upon the Roman throne?