Reading Suetonius' LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS

Getting to the end of Augustus. After reading the Annales, I'd kind of assumed that all the Caesars were either weaklings or terrible degenerates or both. But both Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar seemed kind of okay (at least insofar as powerhungry despots go). I'm still not entirely sure why Julius Caesar basically dismantled the Roman Republic, exce…