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In Search of Suetonius’ illustrious men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2025

James B. Rives
James B. Rives*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
*
jbrives@email.unc.edu
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Abstract

In this paper I argue that the accepted reconstruction of Suetonius’ De viris illustribus has been shaped by unexamined assumptions that have been allowed to take on the appearance of fact. I begin by surveying the scholarly reconstruction of this work from the fifteenth century until today. I then examine two key underlying assumptions: that Suetonius planned and published his series of literary lives as a single compendious work and that it excluded men who were not writers or wrote in Greek; in both cases I propose alternative hypotheses. I lastly test these alternatives by sketching a new approach to a possible Suetonian book De philosophis. I conclude that the more we rid ourselves of a priori assumptions about De viris illustribus, the more clearly we can see that Suetonius’ interests and approach were remarkably consistent throughout all his lives.

Keywords

SuetoniusDe viris illustribusDe philosophisJeromeRoman literary historyancient biography

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Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 115 , November 2025 , pp. 117 - 137
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.

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Footnotes

I owe thanks to friends and colleagues who read early drafts of this paper and gave me helpful feedback: Jim O’Hara, Katharina Volk, Jim Zetzel and especially Cynthia Damon, who provided me with some crucial insights. I am also indebted to Myles Lavan and the anonymous readers for this journal, whose thoughtful critique and useful suggestions prodded me to address a major structural weakness and helped me improve many points of detail. Lastly, I am particularly grateful to my friend and colleague Bill Race, who read multiple drafts and gave me much sound advice on each.

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