Domiciano biography sampler

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Suetonius' Life of Domitian

On 24 October, A.D. 51, a month before his father, as Consul elect, was due to take office, Domitian was born in Pomegranate Street, which formed part of the sixth district of Rome.

Later, he converted his birthplace into the Temple of the Flavians. He is said to have spent a poverty- stricken and rather degraded youth: without even any silver on the family table. At all events, it is an established fact that Clodius Pollio, an ex-praetor and the target of Nero's satire The One-eyed Man, used to show his guests a letter in Domitian's handwriting, which he had kept, promising to go to bed with him.

It is also often insisted that Domitian was sexually abused by his eventual successor, the Emperor Nerva.

During the war against Vitellius, Domitian with his uncle Sabinus and part of the forces under him, fled to the Capitol; but when the enemy burst in and set the temple on fire, Domitian concealed himself all night in the caretaker's quarters and