Latin Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
born AD 69, probably Rome
died after 122
Roman biographer and antiquarian.
Suetonius's family was of the knightly class. His writings include Concerning Illustrious Men , short biographies of literary figures that were the ultimate source of nearly all that is known about the lives of eminent Roman authors. Lives of the Caesars , his other major work, is seasoned with bits of gossip and scandal related to the first 11 emperors; it is largely responsible for the vivid picture of Roman society and its decadent leaders that dominated historical thought until modified in modern times by the discovery of nonliterary evidence.