Book Review – The Lives of the Caesars

The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After reading a couple of Tom Holland’s books about Roman history, I was curious to see how he’d do translating Suetonius. Though I’m not qualified to judge the accuracy of the translation, readability is high. Holland uses plain English without resorting to excessive vernacular, which was particularly helpful in the more sexually explicit passages sometimes omitted from older translations. And of course in keeping with the original author’s prose style, the contents are a bizarrely organized parade of the best and worst in the lives of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors.

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