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The Twelve Caesars

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The Twelve Caesars

By: Suetonius
Narrated by: Clive Chafer
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About this listen

As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, the scholar Suetonius had access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eyewitness accounts) to produce one of the most colorful biographical works in history. The Twelve Caesars chronicles the public careers and private lives of the men who wielded absolute power over Rome, from the foundation of the empire under Julius Caesar and Augustus, to the decline into depravity and civil war under Nero and the recovery that came with his successors. A masterpiece of observation, anecdote, and detailed physical description, The Twelve Caesars presents us with a gallery of vividly drawn---and all too human---individuals. This version of The Twelve Caesars is the translation by Alexander Thomson, M.D.

Public Domain (P)2011 Tantor Ancient Classics Greek & Roman History Philosophy Rome

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This is an excuse edition of Suetonius's text, whose precise & archaic language lends an appropriate sense of depth to the accounts. The reader is very good, holding one's interest while matching the tone of the text admirably. My only significant criticism is that the editor's commentary which follows each "life" is in no way distinguished from the main text, though of a wildly different age, by a different author, & on a different subject--the literary works of the reigns! This took a lot of getting used to, & required me to find the printed text to note the location of the switch from text to commentary on the first instance: I then learnt to look out for a change in style, but it was not always clear.

Excellent text, well (if confusingly) read

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Suetonius is Suetonius, there's not much to say there, but I do have some comments on the formatting of the audiobook, the reader, and the contents.

First, perhaps 1/3rd of the runtime of this audiobook is not Suetonius but a commentary on Suetonius written by one Alexander Thomson, M.D., who I suspect but am unable to confirm might have been the same Alexander Thomson M.D. who was a 19th century Australian pioneer. It's generally a decent commentary, and doesn't detract from the text, but it exacerbates some formatting issues. My chief complaint is that chapters aren't named (making it difficult at times to remember which emperor you're dealing with) and there are no hard breaks between chapters. Sometimes Suetonius runs off into the commentary of Dr. Thomson and I found myself not noticing for several minutes.

The performance is generally poor. Monotonous. A chore was made out of what is actually quite interesting content.

In summary, get another edition unless you are interested in the supplemental commentary that this one includes.

Strong text let down by poor performance

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Brilliantly written brilliantly narrated not just the story of the twelve Caesars but of there time fantastic

2000 years old and still a great book

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Very informative, and I prefer monotonous narration to overly dramatic readings, but have decided to switch to the e-book, together with a copy of Robert Graves' translation, to use as a crib, because it was too difficult to tell which Caesar was being discussed for too much of the time.

Loved this but gave up.

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Monotonous narration completely stiffled this book. Going for print copy instead or another version.

Dire narration

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I really struggled with this book. The narration is THAT bad I couldn’t even remember the content!!

I think I might give Derek Jacobi’s version a go… I think the history would have potential then!

Narrator is awful!

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