Suetonius’ Twelve Caesars tend to be seen as the Big Twelve. They are Julius Caesar (not an emperor), Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. We shall exclude JC to leave eleven emperors, of whom seven were murdered in different circumstances and three of the remaining four were haunted by rumours that they’d been done away with. A sixty-three percent murder rate is cause for concern, and leaves you wondering just what was so alluring about being emperor.
