Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:23:52.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Running in the Family: Inheritance and Family Resemblance in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2022

Phoebe Garrett Open the ORCID record for Phoebe Garrett [Opens in a new window]
Phoebe Garrett*
Affiliation:
Australian National University
*
phoebe.garrett@anu.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ancestry sections in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars demonstrate the inheritance of character traits down the family line. The effectiveness of this as a rhetorical technique rests on an expectation of inheritance and resemblance along the family line. This study investigates the mechanism of that resemblance from the evidence available in Suetonius’ text—nature or nurture?—and then proposes that since the mechanism appears to be not quite the same as that evidenced in earlier writers, the biographer's model of inheritance and degeneration is part of a conversation about succession to the principate. Part one sets out the patterns of resemblance/difference that appear from the lists of ancestors, part two the evidence for nature and nurture of character traits in Suetonius’ Lives, and part three compares the way resemblance works in Suetonius with the way it works in other authors. As modern views on nature and nurture have changed with social and political changes, the final section proposes that the changes over the first century of the principate have to do with the political and social changes in that period. Suetonius’ model of hereditary vice, not hereditary virtue, arises from a disaffection with the system of hereditary succession.

Keywords

naturenurturedegenerationvicevirtueemperorsSuetonius
Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 56 , 2022 , pp. 140 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albini, F. (1997), ‘Family and the Formation of Character in Plutarch’, in Mossman, J. (ed.), Plutarch and His Intellectual World. London, 59–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balmaceda, C. (2017), Virtus Romana. Chapel Hill, NC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barlow, F. K. (2019), ‘Nature vs Nurture Is Nonsense’, Australian Journal of Psychology 71, 68–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baroin, C. (2010), ‘Remembering One's Ancestors, Following in Their Footsteps, Being Like Them: The Role and Forms of Family Memory’, in Dasen, V. and Späth, T. (eds.), Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture. Oxford, 19–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, N. W. (2003), ‘Ancestors, Status and Self-Presentation in Statius’ Thebaid’, TAPhA 133, 353–79.Google Scholar
Bernstein, N. W. (2008), In the Image of the Ancestors: Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic. Toronto.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bethe, E. (1935), Ahnenbild und Familiengeschichte bei Römern und Griechen. Munich.Google Scholar
Bradley, K. R. (1998), ‘Introduction’, in Rolfe, J. C., trans. Suetonius. 2 vols. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA, 1–34.Google Scholar
Brenk, F. E. (1992), ‘Plutarch's Life Markos Antonios: A Literary and Cultural Study’, ANRW 2.33.6, 4347–469.Google Scholar
Burnett, A. (2008), ‘The Early Coinage of Hadrian and the Deified Trajan at Rome and Alexandria’, AJN 20, 459–77.Google Scholar
Burt, C. H. and Simons, R. L. (2015), ‘Heritability Studies in the Postgenomic Era: The Fatal Flaw Is Conceptual’, Criminology 53.1, 103–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charles, M. (2002), ‘Calvus Nero: Domitian and the Mechanics of Predecessor Denigration’, AClass 45, 19–49.Google Scholar
Chong-Gossard, J. H. K. O. (2010), ‘Who Slept with Whom in the Roman Empire? Women, Sex, and Scandal in Suetonius’ Caesares’, in Turner, A. J., Chong-Gossard, J. H. K. O., and Vervaet, F. J. (eds.), Private and Public Lies: The Discourse of Despotism and Deceit in the Graeco-Roman World. Leiden, 295–327.Google Scholar
Colton, R. E. (1977), ‘Echoes of Martial in Juvenal's Fourteenth Satire’, Hermes 105, 234–46.Google Scholar
Cooley, A. (1998), ‘The Moralizing Message of the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre’, G&R 45, 199–212.Google Scholar
Corbeill, A. (1996), Controlling Laughter: Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic. Princeton.Google Scholar
Cornell, T. J. (1982), ‘Review of Clio's Cosmetics: Three Studies in Greco-Roman Literature by T. P. Wiseman’, JRS 72, 203–6.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. and Mallan, C. (2014), ‘Hadrian's Adoption Speech in Cassius Dio's Roman History and the Problems of Imperial Succession’, AJPh 135, 637–68.Google Scholar
Davis, P. J. (1994), ‘The Fabric of History in Statius’ Thebaid’, in Déroux, C. (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History VII. Brussels, 464–83.Google Scholar
Duff, T. E. (2008), ‘Models of Education in Plutarch’, JHS 128, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farney, G. D. (1999), Aristocratic Family Identity in the Roman Republic. Doctoral thesis, Bryn Mawr College.Google Scholar
Finucci, V. and Brownlee, K. (eds.) (2001), Generation and Degeneration: Tropes of Reproduction in Literature and History from Antiquity through Early Modern Europe. Durham, NC.Google Scholar
Friedländer, L. (1908), Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire. Trans. Magnus, L.. 4 vols. Vol. 1. London.Google Scholar
Fuhrmann, R. (1938), Ahnengut in römischen Familien. Halle (Saale).Google Scholar
Galtier, F. (2009), ‘La conception du caractère chez Suétone à travers les cas de Titus et Domitien’, in Poignault, R. (ed.), Présence De Suétone. Clermont-Ferrand, 85–95.Google Scholar
Galton, F. (1874), ‘On Men of Science, Their Nature and Their Nurture’, Proceedings of the Royal Institution 7, 227–36.Google Scholar
Galton, C. J. and Galton, D. J.. (1998), ‘Francis Galton: And Eugenics Today’, Journal of Medical Ethics 24, 99–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, P. (2015), ‘Reconstructing the Lost Beginning of Suetonius’ Divus Iulius’, Antichthon 49, 110–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, P. (2018), ‘Sit in medio: Family and Status in Suetonius’ Vitellius’, AClass 61, 53–68.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. (2019), ‘Foreshadowing and Flashback: Childhood Anecdotes in Suetonius’ Caesars’, CQ 69, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, P. (2021), ‘Ancestry and Family Identity in Suetonius’ Caesars’, CQ 71, 777–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gascou, J. (1976), ‘Suétone et l'ordre équestre’, REL 54, 257–77.Google Scholar
Gascou, J. (1984), Suétone Historien. Paris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, C. (1983), ‘The Question of Character Development: Plutarch and Tacitus’, CQ 33, 469–87.Google Scholar
Griffin, J. (1982), ‘The Creation of Characters in the Aeneid’, in Gold, B. K. (ed.), Literary and Artistic Patronage in Ancient Rome. Austin, 118–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, M. T. (1997), ‘The Senate's Story’, Review of Das Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre by W. Eck, A. Caballos, and F. Fernández, JRS 87, 249–63.Google Scholar
Haedicke, W. (1937), Die Gedanken der Griechen über Familienherkunft und Vererbung. Halle (Saale).Google Scholar
Hands, A. R. (1974), ‘Postremo suo tantum ingenio utebatur’, CQ 24, 312–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, S. J. (1996), ‘Hereditary Eloquence among the Torquati: Catullus 61.209–18’, AJPh 117, 285–87.Google Scholar
Henderson, J. (1997), Figuring out Roman Nobility: Juvenal's Eighth Satire. Exeter.Google Scholar
Holland, P. (1930), Suetonius: History of Twelve Caesars. Freese, J. H. (ed.). London.Google Scholar
Hopkins, K. and Burton, G. (1983), ‘Political Succession in the Late Republic (249–50 BC)’, in Hopkins, K. (ed.), Death and Renewal. Cambridge, 31–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, B. (1996), Suetonius: Domitian. London.Google Scholar
Kaster, R. A. (2016), C. Suetoni Tranquilli De vita Caesarum libros VIII et De grammaticis et rhetoribus librum. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keane, C. (2007), ‘Philosophy into Satire: The Program of Juvenal's Fifth Book’, AJPh 128, 27–57.Google Scholar
Kent, R. G. (1951), Varro: On the Latin Language. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Lambrecht, U. (1995), ‘Suetons Domitian-vita’, Gymnasium 102, 508–36.Google Scholar
Lawrence, S. J. (2015), ‘Dead on Time: Valerius Maximus 9.13 and Stoicism’, Antichthon 49, 135–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legendre, P. (1985), L'inestimable objet de la transmission: étude sur le principe généalogique en Occident. Paris.Google Scholar
Mooney, G. W. (1979), C. Suetoni Tranquilli De Vita Caesarum Libri VII–VIII. First published 1930. New York.Google Scholar
Newlands, C. E. (2002), Statius’ Silvae and the Poetics of Empire. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pauly, P. J. (1993), ‘The Eugenics Industry: Growth or Restructuring?’, Review of The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia ed. M. B. Adams; Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France by W. H. Schneider; Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870–1945 by P. Weindling; The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the United States by P. R. Reilly; White Trash: The Eugenic Family Studies, 1877–1919 ed. N. H. Rafter; Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings: The Eugenics Society, Its Sources and Its Critics in Britain by P. M. H. Mazumdar, Journal of the History of Biology 26, 131–45.Google Scholar
Pelling, C. (1990), ‘Childhood and Personality in Greek Biography’, in Pelling, C. (ed.), Characterization and Individuality in Greek Literature. Oxford, 213–44.Google Scholar
Penella, R. J. (2018), ‘The Fathers of the Emperors Caligula and Claudius in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars’, Phoenix 72, 161–65.Google Scholar
Potter, D. S. and Damon, C. (1999), ‘The Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre’, AJPh 120, 13–42.Google Scholar
Quinlan, S. M. (2006), ‘Inheriting Vice, Acquiring Virtue: Hereditary Disease and Moral Hygiene in Eighteenth-Century France’, BHM 80, 649–76.Google ScholarPubMed
Ramage, E. S. (1983), ‘Denigration of Predecessor under Claudius, Galba, and Vespasian’, Historia 32, 201–14.Google Scholar
Ramage, E. S. (1989), ‘Juvenal and the Establishment. Denigration of Predecessor in the “Satires”’, ANRW 2.33.1, 640–707.Google Scholar
Rolfe, J. C. (1997), Suetonius, revised by D. W. Hurley. 2 vols. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Rolfe, J. C. (1998), Suetonius, revised by D. W. Hurley. 2 vols. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Seager, R. (2007), ‘Ciceronian Invective: Themes and Variations’, in Booth, J. (ed.), Cicero on the Attack. Swansea, 25–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staum, M. (1995), ‘Physiognomy and Phrenology at the Paris Athénée’, JHI 56, 443–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steidle, W. (1963), Sueton und die antike Biographie. 2nd ed. Munich. (Original edition 1951).Google Scholar
Stein, J. P. (1970), ‘The Unity and Scope of Juvenal's Fourteenth Satire’, CPh 65, 34–6.Google Scholar
Swain, S. (1989), ‘Character Change in Plutarch’, Phoenix 43, 62–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Syme, R. (1970) Ten Studies in Tacitus. Oxford.Google Scholar
Syme, R. (1974), ‘History or Biography. The Case of Tiberius Caesar’, Historia 23, 481–96.Google Scholar
Syme, R. (1984), ‘The Crisis of 2 B.C.’, in Roman Papers III. Oxford, 912–36.Google Scholar
Tarrant, R. J. (1985), Seneca's Thyestes. Atlanta.Google Scholar
Thiel, J. H. (1935), ‘Kaiser Tiberius (ein Beitrag zum Verständnis seiner Persönlichkeit) I. Tiberius und die Gens Claudia’, Mnemosyne 2, 245–70.Google Scholar
Treggiari, S. (2003), ‘Ancestral Virtues and Vices: Cicero on Nature, Nurture and Presentation’, in Braund, D. and Gill, C. (eds.), Myth, History and Culture in Republican Rome. Studies in Honour of T. P. Wiseman. Exeter, 139–64.Google Scholar
Tyrrell, R. Y. and Purser, L. C. (1894), The Correspondence of M. Tullius Cicero, 6 vols. Vol. 4. Dublin.Google Scholar
Van der Blom, H. (2010), Cicero's Role Models. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasaly, A. (1987), ‘Livy's Depiction of the Appii Claudii in the First Pentad’, TAPhA 117, 203–26.Google Scholar
Vasaly, A. (1999), ‘The Quinctii in Livy's First Pentad: The Rhetoric of Anti-Rhetoric.’ CW 92, 513–30.Google Scholar
Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1995), Suetonius. First published in 1983 as Suetonius: The Scholar and his Caesars. London.Google Scholar
Wardle, D. (1994), Suetonius’ Life of Caligula: A Commentary. Brussels.Google Scholar
Watson, L. and Watson, P. (2003), Martial: Select Epigrams. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Weisweiler, J. (2020) ‘The Heredity of Senatorial Status in the Principate’, JRS 110, 29–56.Google Scholar
Williams, G. W. (1978), Change and Decline: Roman Literature in the Early Empire. Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiseman, T. P. (1979), ‘The Legends of the Patrician Claudii’, in Clio's Cosmetics: Three Studies in Greco-Roman Literature. Leicester, 55–139.Google Scholar
Woodman, A. J. (1998), ‘Tacitus’ Obituary of Tiberius’, in Woodman, A. J. (ed.), Tacitus Reviewed. Oxford, 155–67.Google Scholar