The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Twelve Caesars is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. The work was written in 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, while Suetonius was Hadrian's personal secretary. On the Life of the Caesars concentrates on the acts and personalities of the Julio-Claudians and their immediate successors. Together with Tacitus' Annals, this work is a major source for the historical details in Robert Graves' novels "I Claudius" and "Claudius the God". (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline.) (16 hr 2 min)
Chapters
Preface | 6:10 | Read by Graham Redman |
Julius Caesar part 1 | 24:15 | Read by Graham Redman |
Julius Caesar part 2 | 26:40 | Read by Graham Redman |
Julius Caesar part 3 | 36:08 | Read by Graham Redman |
Julius Caesar part 4 | 34:12 | Read by Graham Redman |
Julius Caesar part 5 | 18:48 | Read by Graham Redman |
Caesar Agustus part 1 | 24:30 | Read by ontheroad |
Caesar Agustus part 2 | 26:35 | Read by ontheroad |
Caesar Agustus part 3 | 27:45 | Read by ontheroad |
Caesar Agustus part 4 | 26:45 | Read by Leni |
Caesar Agustus part 5 | 27:10 | Read by Leni |
Caesar Agustus part 6 | 25:50 | Read by Leni |
Tiberius part 1 | 26:46 | Read by Kristine Bekere |
Tiberius part 2 | 29:34 | Read by Kristine Bekere |
Tiberius part 3 | 26:06 | Read by Kristine Bekere |
Tiberius part 4 | 28:07 | Read by Kristine Bekere |
Caligula part 1 | 34:11 | Read by Andrew Coleman |
Caligula part 2 | 34:27 | Read by Andrew Coleman |
Caligula part 3 | 35:18 | Read by Andrew Coleman |
Claudius part 1 | 27:31 | Read by BUAES |
Claudius part 2 | 24:16 | Read by BUAES |
Claudius part 3 | 23:06 | Read by BUAES |
Nero part 1 | 24:59 | Read by Philippa |
Nero part 2 | 23:56 | Read by Philippa |
Nero part 3 | 24:07 | Read by Philippa |
Nero part 4 | 22:01 | Read by Philippa |
Galba part 1 | 20:50 | Read by Andrew Coleman |
Galba part 2 | 18:45 | Read by Andrew Coleman |
Otho | 24:32 | Read by Andrew Coleman |
Vitellius | 32:23 | Read by Andrew Coleman |
Vespasian part 1 | 18:38 | Read by icyjumbo (1964-2010) |
Vespasian part 2 | 20:31 | Read by icyjumbo (1964-2010) |
Titus | 16:23 | Read by David Leeson |
Domitian part 1 | 21:36 | Read by David Leeson |
Domitian part 2 | 21:17 | Read by David Leeson |
Lives of Eminent Grammarians part 1 | 18:46 | Read by Leni |
Lives of Eminent Grammarians part 2 | 19:50 | Read by Leni |
Lives of Eminent Rhetoricians | 12:45 | Read by Anne Cheng |
Lives of the Poets | 26:35 | Read by Sibella Denton |
Reviews
Rodney David Reeves
An elegant review with insights for students and professionals.
A LibriVox Listener
Good narration despite not having a consistent person reading.
Twelve Caesars Today
Sean O'Shannessy
Not all that long ago in an empire quite close to ours, a deeply flawed "democracy" collapsed under the weight of its systemic corruption and deeply institutionalised violence. Sound familiar? The fall of the Roman Republic and its transformation into a permenant dictatorship (as told by the secretary to one of its emperors) is an eye opening tale of power, intrigue, mass murder and madness to put Game of Thrones to shame. Those who fail to understand history are condemned to repeat it.
Maybe More Than You Wanted to Know
Phxjennifer
Two things: 1) the author supposes that you have a thorough grasp of Roman History to start with; 2) you might not want to listen to this with the kids in the car unless you are willing to explain to an alert 10-year-old what a catamite is. There are no punches pulled, although the translator uses charming 19th century euphemisms for some activities. Our high school history books cleaned things up a Lot!
great narration
Bruce G
I enjoyed this book. Thank you All for taking the time to read it
BlackDuece
Overall its great, just a little jarring with so many different readers
A LibriVox Listener
thank you for converting to English
Accents
AEG
The reader Leni is hard to understand at times. update- Kristine's is worse! If I didn't know a tiny bit about the Caesars, I would have no idea what she was saying.