The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius (speld decodable readers .txt) ๐
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Suetonius was a Roman historian born in about 69 AD, shortly after the death of the emperor Nero. This book, detailing the lives of the twelve Roman emperors who were known as โCaesarโโsome by a family connection to Julius Caesar, some just as a titleโis considered to be Suetoniusโ most important work.
The Lives of the Caesars is a detailed account of the often dramatic lives of these emperors, whose abilities and morals varied enormously; from the capable, stable Augustus, to the insane Caligula. Several of these men died violently either by their own hand or by assassins. Suetonius, though, is careful to give credit where it is due, outlining the better actions and laws of each alongside an account of the crimes and immoralities they also carried out.
This turbulent period of Roman history has often been depicted in fiction and in media, drawing on the work of Suetonius and other contemporary historians. For example, Robert Gravesโ novel I, Claudius (1934), which was made into a highly-controversial television series by the BBC in 1976.
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- Author: Suetonius
Read book online ยซThe Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius (speld decodable readers .txt) ๐ยป. Author - Suetonius
โIf wrong may eโer be right, for a throneโs sake
Were wrong most right:โ โbe God in all else feared.โ31
Accordingly, when word came that the veto of the tribunes had been set aside and they themselves had left the city, he at once sent on a few cohorts with all secrecy, and then, to disarm suspicion, concealed his purpose by appearing at a public show inspecting the plans of a gladiatorial school which he intended building, and joining as usual in a banquet with a large company. It was not until after sunset that he set out very privily with a small company, taking the mules from a bakeshop hard by and harnessing them to a carriage; and when his lights went out and he lost his way, he was astray for some time, but at last found a guide at dawn and got back to the road on foot by narrow bypaths. Then, overtaking his cohorts at the river Rubicon, which was the boundary of his province, he paused for a while, and realising what a step he was taking, he turned to those about him and said: โEven yet we may draw back; but once cross yon little bridge, and the whole issue is with the sword.โ
As he stood in doubt, this sign was given him. On a sudden there appeared hard by a being of wondrous stature and beauty, who sat and played upon a reed; and when not only the shepherds flocked to hear him, but many of the soldiers left their posts, and among them some of the trumpeters, the apparition snatched a trumpet from one of them, rushed to the river, and sounding the war-note with mighty blast, strode to the opposite bank. Then Caesar cried: โTake we the course which the signs of the gods and the false dealing of our foes point out. The die is cast,โ said he.
Accordingly, crossing with his army, and welcoming the tribunes of the commons, who had come to him after being driven from Rome, he harangued the soldiers with tears, and rending his robe from his breast besought their faithful service. It is even thought that he promised every man a knightโs estate, but that came of a misunderstanding: for since he often pointed to the finger of his left hand as he addressed them and urged them on, declaring that to satisfy all those who helped him to defend his honour he would gladly tear this very ring from his hand, those on the edge of the assembly, who could see him better than they could hear his words, assumed that he said what his gesture seemed to mean; and so the report went about that he had promised them the right of the ring and four hundred thousand sesterces32 as well.
The sum total of his movements after that is, in their order, as follows: He overran Umbria, Picenum, and Etruria, took prisoner Lucius Domitius, who had been irregularly33 named his successor, and was holding Corfinium with a garrison, let him go free, and then proceeded along the Adriatic to Brundisium, where Pompey and the consuls had taken refuge, intending to cross the sea as soon as might be. After trying by every kind of hindrance to prevent their sailing, he marched off to Rome, and after calling the senate together to discuss public business, went to attack Pompeyโs strongest forces, which were in Spain under command of three of his lieutenantsโ โMarcus Petreius, Lucius Afranius, and Marcus Varroโ โsaying to his friends before he left โI go to meet an army without a leader, and I shall return to meet a leader without an army.โ And in fact, though his advance was delayed by the siege of Massilia, which had shut its gates against him, and by extreme scarcity of supplies, he nevertheless quickly gained a complete victory.
Returning thence to Rome, he crossed into Macedonia, and after blockading Pompey for almost four months behind mighty ramparts, finally routed him in the battle at Pharsalus, followed him in his flight to Alexandria, and when he learned that his rival had been slain, made war on King Ptolemy, whom he perceived to be plotting against his own safety as well; a war in truth of great difficulty, convenient neither in time nor place, but carried on during the winter season, within the walls of a well-provisioned and crafty foeman, while Caesar himself was without supplies of any kind and ill-prepared. Victor in spite of all, he turned over the rule of Egypt to Cleopatra and her younger brother, fearing that if he made a province of it, it might one day under a headstrong governor be a source of revolution. From Alexandria he crossed to Syria, and from there went to Pontus,
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