The Lives of the Twelve Caesars


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4.5 stars; 44 reviews)

The Twelve Caesars is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. The work was written in 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, while Suetonius was Hadrian's personal secretary. On the Life of the Caesars concentrates on the acts and personalities of the Julio-Claudians and their immediate successors. Together with Tacitus' Annals, this work is a major source for the historical details in Robert Graves' novels "I Claudius" and "Claudius the God". (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline.) (16 hr 2 min)

Chapters

Preface 6:10 Read by Graham Redman
Julius Caesar part 1 24:15 Read by Graham Redman
Julius Caesar part 2 26:40 Read by Graham Redman
Julius Caesar part 3 36:08 Read by Graham Redman
Julius Caesar part 4 34:12 Read by Graham Redman
Julius Caesar part 5 18:48 Read by Graham Redman
Caesar Agustus part 1 24:30 Read by ontheroad
Caesar Agustus part 2 26:35 Read by ontheroad
Caesar Agustus part 3 27:45 Read by ontheroad
Caesar Agustus part 4 26:45 Read by Leni
Caesar Agustus part 5 27:10 Read by Leni
Caesar Agustus part 6 25:50 Read by Leni
Tiberius part 1 26:46 Read by Kristine Bekere
Tiberius part 2 29:34 Read by Kristine Bekere
Tiberius part 3 26:06 Read by Kristine Bekere
Tiberius part 4 28:07 Read by Kristine Bekere
Caligula part 1 34:11 Read by Andrew Coleman
Caligula part 2 34:27 Read by Andrew Coleman
Caligula part 3 35:18 Read by Andrew Coleman
Claudius part 1 27:31 Read by BUAES
Claudius part 2 24:16 Read by BUAES
Claudius part 3 23:06 Read by BUAES
Nero part 1 24:59 Read by Philippa
Nero part 2 23:56 Read by Philippa
Nero part 3 24:07 Read by Philippa
Nero part 4 22:01 Read by Philippa
Galba part 1 20:50 Read by Andrew Coleman
Galba part 2 18:45 Read by Andrew Coleman
Otho 24:32 Read by Andrew Coleman
Vitellius 32:23 Read by Andrew Coleman
Vespasian part 1 18:38 Read by icyjumbo (1964-2010)
Vespasian part 2 20:31 Read by icyjumbo (1964-2010)
Titus 16:23 Read by David Leeson
Domitian part 1 21:36 Read by David Leeson
Domitian part 2 21:17 Read by David Leeson
Lives of Eminent Grammarians part 1 18:46 Read by Leni
Lives of Eminent Grammarians part 2 19:50 Read by Leni
Lives of Eminent Rhetoricians 12:45 Read by Anne Cheng
Lives of the Poets 26:35 Read by Sibella Denton

Reviews


(5 stars)

An elegant review with insights for students and professionals.


(4 stars)

Good narration despite not having a consistent person reading.

Twelve Caesars Today


(4.5 stars)

Not all that long ago in an empire quite close to ours, a deeply flawed "democracy" collapsed under the weight of its systemic corruption and deeply institutionalised violence. Sound familiar? The fall of the Roman Republic and its transformation into a permenant dictatorship (as told by the secretary to one of its emperors) is an eye opening tale of power, intrigue, mass murder and madness to put Game of Thrones to shame. Those who fail to understand history are condemned to repeat it.

Maybe More Than You Wanted to Know


(4 stars)

Two things: 1) the author supposes that you have a thorough grasp of Roman History to start with; 2) you might not want to listen to this with the kids in the car unless you are willing to explain to an alert 10-year-old what a catamite is. There are no punches pulled, although the translator uses charming 19th century euphemisms for some activities. Our high school history books cleaned things up a Lot!

great narration


(5 stars)

I enjoyed this book. Thank you All for taking the time to read it


(3 stars)

Overall its great, just a little jarring with so many different readers


(5 stars)

thank you for converting to English

Accents


(3 stars)

The reader Leni is hard to understand at times. update- Kristine's is worse! If I didn't know a tiny bit about the Caesars, I would have no idea what she was saying.