A comparative analysis, under philological and literary point of view, of the account of Augustus’ funeral written by the biographer Suetonius (Aug.100) and by historian Tacitus (Ann.1.8-10)

Abstract

This paper aims to make a comparative analysis, under a philological and literary point of view, of the account of Augustus’ funeral written by the biographer Suetonius (Aug.100) and by historian Tacitus (Ann.1.8-10). Firstly, the political and social importance of the funus publicum, the subject of the account, is highlighted. Secondly, there is a very detailed analysis which tries to emphasize the similarities and, specially, the differences between both Suetonius’ and Tacitus’ account in relation to the provided data and its sequence and, particulary, in relation to focalization that each author proves concerning that data and the account as a whole. Finally, this paper tries to explain the significant differences between both accounts by reason of their literary gender (biography-history), the intention and specific purpose of each work (Suetonius’ Vita Augusti and Tacitus’ Annales) and the different intellectual personality of each author.