Do outro lado da baía, o oriente helenístico e a Vida de Calígula em Suetônio

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the Life of Caligula in Suetonius in order to understand the proto-Orientalism in the life of the biographer, accentuated by Suetonius. Our premise is to highlight the Greek, Egyptian and Hellenistic aspects that the biographer uses to disqualify the principality of Gaius Caesar. Suetonius amplifies the topoi of argumentation and ancient rhetoric, the “orientalization”, and certain “commonplaces”, the crossing, to achieve his goal. We conjecture the likelihood that Suetonius was criticizing his time, with the biographer living in the principality of Hadrian, jokingly called the “little Greek”, the principality of Hadrian also being marked by extreme violence and inclinations towards elements of Greek, Egyptian and Hellenic culture. We will reflect on the political scenario in which Suetonius was inserted and how the biographer used different literary genres in the construction of his celebrated work, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars.