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FORESHADOWING AND FLASHBACK: CHILDHOOD ANECDOTES IN SUETONIUS’ CAESARS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2019

Phoebe Garrett
Phoebe Garrett*
Affiliation:
Australian National University
*
[email protected]
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Extract

Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars contain at least twenty discrete anecdotes about childhood (pueritia) and youth (iuuenta or adulescentia) spread across the Lives. Some characterize the Caesars by looking forwards (foreshadowing) and others do so by looking backwards (flashbacks). In both foreshadowing and flashback, the childhood anecdote shows continuity with the adult and creates the impression of lifelong consistency of character. The foreshadowing technique is also something other ancient biographers do; the flashback is something that appears to be unique to Suetonius. In this note I briefly consider the stories from childhood and youth that foreshadow character traits and themes of the rest of the Life, and then the flashbacks from the adulthood section of the Life that refer to childhood and youth in order to demonstrate vices of the grown adult. I show that the use of foreshadowing and flashbacks contributes to the appearance of a fully formed character in the child that will be consistent into adulthood, as well as facilitating the rubric system of arranging material by type rather than by time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 378 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019 

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Footnotes

This paper was presented in various versions at seminars in the Australian National University, the University of Sydney and the University of Newcastle, and at the Australasian Society for Classical Studies Conference in Wellington. I thank the audience of those presentations, as well as Kristin Heineman, Paul Burton, Bronwen Neil and Camilla Smith for their suggestions and contributions. I also thank the journal's referees for their anonymous suggestions. This paper was written with the support of the Australian National University as a Visiting Fellow. I thank Hugh Lindsay, Jane Bellemore and Claire Jamset for supervision at various stages of the work. I use the 2016 Oxford Classical Text of Suetonius (R. Kaster, C. Suetoni Tranquilli De uita Caesarum libri VIII et De grammaticis et rhetoribus liber [Oxford, 2016]) and the translations are adapted from the Loeb of Rolfe/Hurley (J.C. Rolfe, Suetonius, revised by D. Hurley, 2 vols. [Cambridge, MA, 1997–8]).

References

2 Iul. 71; Aug. 84; Tib. 6.1–4, 57; Calig. 11, 24.1; Claud. 2.1–2, 3.1, 3.2–4.7; Ner. 6.3, 6.4, 7.1, 22.1, 52; Galb. 4.1; Otho 2.1; Vit. 3–4; Vesp. 2; Tit. 3.1; Dom. 1.3, 12.3, 14.1. This is not including three references to reputations gained ‘in youth’, but these are on two out of three occasions mentioned only to be denied. Augustus (Aug. 68) and Titus (Tit. 6.2–7.1) attracted bad reputations but these turned out to be unfair; these ‘reputations’ explain any apparent inconsistency between youth and adulthood. Only Domitian's bad reputation (he was said to have been debauched by Nerva, nec defuerunt qui affirmarent, Dom. 1.1) is neither confirmed nor denied, though its prominent position at the beginning of the Life is probably meant to colour the reader's assessment. On Suetonius’ inclusion of this sexual material in Augustus, see Wardle, D., Suetonius: Life of Augustus (Oxford, 2014), 436Google Scholar: ‘The framing of the material on Aug.’s sexual relations with men makes it clear that Suet. attaches little credibility to it: firstly, the rubric talks only of a “bad reputation” (infamia); secondly Suet. records the source of each specific allegation so that the reader can discount the bias … and thirdly, the culminating item proves no more than widespread knowledge of the allegations.’

3 The presence of both foreshadowing and flashbacks in Suetonius was briefly noted by Gill, C., ‘The question of character development: Plutarch and Tacitus’, CQ 33 (1983), 469–87, at 476–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 I have restricted my search to stories that explicitly refer to youth or childhood. I exclude a small group of childhood stories that do little for characterization, but rather serve as omens of future greatness, or background scene-setting: Aug. 94.7; Tib. 6.1–4; Galb. 4.1; Vesp. 2.

5 On the tripartite structure of many of the Lives, with a chronological section at either end ‘sandwiching’ a main section arranged by rubric, see Hurley, D.W., ‘Suetonius’ rubric sandwich’, in Power, T. and Gibson, R. (edd.), Suetonius the Biographer (Oxford, 2014), 21–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Calig. 11; Claud. 2.1–2, 3.1, 3.2–4.7; Ner. 6.3, 6.4, 7.1; Vit. 3–4; Tit. 3.1; Dom. 1.3.

7 See also Dio Cass. 61.2–4, Tac. Ann. 11.11.6.

8 The snake embellishment, suggesting some sort of divine protection, has the hallmarks of a legend created about his childhood once he was heir apparent or already ruler, especially as it is supposed to have occurred when Messalina was still alive. There are many stories about the childhoods of heroes and rulers involving serpents, but they are usually about a child defeating the snake. Wiedemann, T.E.J., Adults and Children in the Roman Empire (London, 1989)Google Scholar gives some examples. On this subject I thank Daniel Ogden for discussion.

9 Murison, C.L., Suetonius: Galba, Otho, Vitellius (London, 1992), 142Google Scholar is right to note that it is unlikely that this actually happened.

10 Vit. 3–4, looking forwards to 12. Cf. Aug. 68.1; Iul. 49. On sexual material as ‘character assassination’ in Suetonius, see Meister, J., ‘Reports about the “sex life” of early Roman emperors: a case of character assassination?’, in Icks, M. and Shiraev, E. (edd.), Character Assassination throughout the Ages (New York, 2014), 59–81Google Scholar, who considers Suetonius an antiquarian rather than an author (at 73 n. 43), with which I would vehemently disagree. On sexual practices in political invective in general, see Richlin, A., The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor (New York, 1992), 81–104Google Scholar; Krenkel, W., Naturalia non Turpia: Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece and Rome (Hildesheim, 2006), 233–63Google Scholar; Langlands, R., Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 2006), 348–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 This reference is neither a foreshadowing nor a flashback: the unusual structure of Otho means that childhood and adulthood are all one section. It does appear early in the Life, so it is more appropriate to call it foreshadowing than flashback.

12 E.g. Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Cornelius Nepos (e.g. Att. 1.3) and the Historia Augusta (e.g. Marc. 2, 2.6, 4.10, 7.1; and Comm. 1.7–1.9, 10.1 but not Caracalla [M. Ant. 1.3–1.7], where there is a contrast between child and adult): Wiedemann (n. 8), 56, 61.

13 Duff, T.E., ‘Plutarch on the childhood of Alkibiades (Alk. 2–3)’, PCPhS 49 (2003), 89–117Google Scholar; Duff, T.E., ‘Models of education in Plutarch’, JHS 128 (2008), 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Duff (n. 13 [2008]), 4.

15 Iul. 71, Aug. 84, Tib. 57, Calig. 24.1, Ner. 22.1, Dom. 12.3.

16 But we know from Calig. 10 that Caligula was still praetextatus until he went to Capri in his nineteenth year.

17 cum omnibus sororibus suis consuetudinem stupri fecit plenoque conuiuio singulas infra se uicissim conlocabat uxore supra cubante. ex iis Drusillam uitiasse uirginem praetextatus adhuc creditur atque etiam in concubitu eius quondam deprehensus ab Antonia auia, apud quam simul educabantur (Calig. 24.1).

18 The frequent use of ancestral character traits to foreshadow the same traits in the subject also contributes to this impression of character traits coming from parents and ancestors, particularly on the paternal side.

19 On a similar theme, but with different implications, Agricola's mother also discouraged her son's interest in philosophy (Tac. Agr. 4.3).

20 Augustus’ devotion to his studies, Aug. 84; Julius Caesar's loyalty, Iul. 71.