Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus

Suetonius
A fictitious representation of Suetonius from the 15th-century Nuremberg Chronicle
Born	Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus c. 69 AD Italy
Died	After c. 122 AD
Occupation	Secretary, historian
Genre	Biography
Subject	History, biography, oratory
Literary movement	Silver Age of Latin
Notable works	The Lives of the Twelve Caesars

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (Classical Latin: [ˈɡaː.ɪ.ʊs ˈswɛ.tɔn.jʊs traŋˈkᶣɪl.lʊs]), commonly known as Suetonius (/swɪˈtoʊniəs/; c. 69 – after 122 AD), was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.

His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum. He recorded the earliest accounts of Julius Caesar's epileptic seizures. Other works by Suetonius concern the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. A few of these books have partially survived, but many have been lost.

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born in about 69 AD, a date deduced from his remarks describing himself as a "young man" twenty years after Nero's death. His place of birth is disputed, but most scholars place it in Hippo Regius, a small north African town in modern-day Numidia. It is certain that Suetonius came from a family of moderate social position, that his father, Suetonius Laetus, was a tribune of equestrian rank (tribunus angusticlavius) in the Thirteenth Legion, and that Suetonius was educated when schools of rhetoric flourished in Rome.