The Twelve Caesars
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The personalities of the Twelve Caesars of ancient Rome - Julius Caesar and the first eleven Roman emperors who followed him - have profoundly impressed themselves upon the world. They formed the theme of the great Roman biographer Suetonius, who had much to say about their sexual and other aberrations, which have been the subject of countless legends and bizarre fantasies. In this book Michael Grant attempts to penetrate the fog of superstition and rumour that has gathered around these astonishingly powerful men and investigates how they wielded such vast might, how they coped or failed with their task, and considers the effects their intensely demanding public careers had on their private lives. He questions the truth of the many stories which have suggested that the Caesars were consumed by erotic eccentricities, and he asks to what extent we are justified, after a study of the scorching pages of Tacitus, in applying to the Roman Caesars Lord Actor's saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely
The personalities of the Twelve Caesars of ancient Rome - Julius Caesar and the first eleven Roman emperors who followed him - have profoundly impressed themselves upon the world. They formed the theme of the great Roman biographer Suetonius, who had much to say about their sexual and other aberrations, which have been the subject of countless legends and bizarre fantasies. In this book Michael Grant attempts to penetrate the fog of superstition and rumour that has gathered around these astonishingly powerful men and investigates how they wielded such vast might, how they coped or failed with their task, and considers the effects their intensely demanding public careers had on their private lives. He questions the truth of the many stories which have suggested that the Caesars were consumed by erotic eccentricities, and he asks to what extent we are justified, after a study of the scorching pages of Tacitus, in applying to the Roman Caesars Lord Actor's saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely
This book as the title suggests discusses the role of the first twelve Caesars, the first twelve Roman Emperors. Julius Caesar (first Caesar) was a dictator and not an Emperor, Augustus who followed Julius became the first Emperor of Rome.
The names of the first twelve Caesars for those of you that are interested are..
1. Julius Caesar
2. Augustus
3. Tiberius
4. Caligula
5. Claudius
6. Nero
7. Galba
8. Otho
9. Vitellius
10.Vespasian
11.Titus
12.Domitian.
This book tells the story of these men in just 256 pages so the writer only gives us a glimpse into their respective lives. He tends to focus on how they came into power and how they died, the bits in between, their actual reigns he tends to just gloss over. As a consequence of this I don't know if I enjoyed this book or not, I felt as though I didn't really learn all that much about these guys, yet I don't fancy reading whole books dedicated to each of the twelve, so in that sense a book like this is good.
A couple of things I did learn, facts that I will now add to my long list of useless facts that no-one is bothered about is that Galba was the first Roman Emperor not to have a blood line back to Julius Caesar, and that Caligula never made his horse, Incitatus, a consult, He simply made the quip that his horse could do a better job than the people who were doing the job already.
It's not a book I would strongly recommend as the story seems to repeat itself throughout all twelve Caesars. They come to power, they kill a few people, they survive a few death threats, and for the most of them they are killed.
The names of the first twelve Caesars for those of you that are interested are..
1. Julius Caesar
2. Augustus
3. Tiberius
4. Caligula
5. Claudius
6. Nero
7. Galba
8. Otho
9. Vitellius
10.Vespasian
11.Titus
12.Domitian.
This book tells the story of these men in just 256 pages so the writer only gives us a glimpse into their respective lives. He tends to focus on how they came into power and how they died, the bits in between, their actual reigns he tends to just gloss over. As a consequence of this I don't know if I enjoyed this book or not, I felt as though I didn't really learn all that much about these guys, yet I don't fancy reading whole books dedicated to each of the twelve, so in that sense a book like this is good.
A couple of things I did learn, facts that I will now add to my long list of useless facts that no-one is bothered about is that Galba was the first Roman Emperor not to have a blood line back to Julius Caesar, and that Caligula never made his horse, Incitatus, a consult, He simply made the quip that his horse could do a better job than the people who were doing the job already.
It's not a book I would strongly recommend as the story seems to repeat itself throughout all twelve Caesars. They come to power, they kill a few people, they survive a few death threats, and for the most of them they are killed.
