Comment écrire sur les empereurs ? Les procédés historiographiques de Tacite et Suétone

Knowing what happened before a text was written is not an easy task for scholars or students in Classics. The resulting frustration is even more keenly felt in the case of ancient historiography, for we know, but only through glimpses, that a process of collecting, selecting and integrating previous sources preceded the redaction of the works we have.

This book aims at understanding this ‟writing background” by systematically comparing two contemporary Latin historians, Tacitus and Suetonius. Their works are considered equal from a historiographical point of view, so as to determine what part of their content comes from the influence of their predecessors, personal choices or the expectations of their 2nd century audience.

The author thus studies from a historiographical perspective famous episodes like Tiberius’ retreat in Capri or the Great Fire of 64, but also analyses, for instance, how Tacitus, Suetonius and their sources appear in the texts, how already existing schemes are used and developed and how the tradition about Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho and Vitellius was progressively constituted. The ultimate goal of the work is to better understand the relation of Roman society to its first imperial past and the way it should be written.