Suetonius

Writing in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE, Suetonius was a Roman scholar and biographer whose most famous work is De vita Caesarum (The Twelve Caesars). In it, he profiled Julius Caesar and the first eleven Roman emperors, mixing political history with vivid personal details, scandals, habits, and anecdotes.

He is thought to have been born around 69 CE, probably in North Africa or Italy, and he worked close to the imperial administration under Emperor Hadrian. That position seems to have given him access to official records and letters, which helped make his writing unusually rich in detail.

Suetonius also wrote on grammar, rhetoric, and notable literary figures, though much of that material survives only in part. What remains shows a writer less interested in grand speeches or military campaigns than in personality, private life, and the telling detail—one reason his books still feel lively nearly two thousand years later.