Lives of the Later Caesars
by Anthony Birley
- New
- Paperback
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10
- 0140443088
- ISBN 13
- 9780140443080
- Seller
-
Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
2 Copies Available from This Seller
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About This Item
Paperback / softback. New. One of the most controversial of all works to survive from ancient Rome, the Augustan History is our main source of information about the Roman emperors from 117 to 284 AD. Written in the late fourth century by an anonymous author, it is an enigmatic combination of truth, invention and humour. This volume contains the first half of the History, and includes biographies of every emperor from Hadrian to Heliogabalus - among them the godlike Marcus Antonius and his grotesquely corrupt son Commodus. The History contains many fictitious (but highly entertaining) anecdotes about the depravity of the emperors, as the author blends historical fact and faked documents to present our most complete - albeit unreliable - account of the later Roman Caesars.
Reviews
On Jun 13 2011, MarkMilner said:
This is an odd one. It's maybe a literary forgery or hoax, but it's also a valuable source for this period of rome; the stuff it assumes you know for granted - Herodian's wall across England, for example - is an interesting mix of history from the Roman Empire while the stuff it tells you is more or less false.On one hand, it's nice that Anthony Birley has taken the time to annotate the hell out of this thing, marking off what's fiction (and sometimes pointing out what really happened), especially when he elaborates on an odd statement in the middle of something completely fake. On the other, he only translated the first half of the MSS this came from. Where does this book stand? More or less where Birley assumes it's supposed to: as a sequel to Suetonus. It spreads unflattering truths and insane fiction about the dirt of some really depraved guys like Commodus and Elagabalus while heaping praise on nicer people like Marcus Aurelius. He even goes into the usurpers, of which there are more than a few, all of whom meet the same fate. On the whole, it's a fascinating and weird book but one which does a good job at painting Rome's leaders in a period of crisis, both from within and without; the whole time I'm read this, I kept thinking this would have been a killer third season for HBO's Rome. If you liked The Twelve Caesars, you'll like this. Otherwise, start there first
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Details
- Bookseller
- The Saint Bookstore (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- A9780140443080
- Title
- Lives of the Later Caesars
- Author
- Anthony Birley
- Format/Binding
- Paperback / softback
- Book Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 2
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0140443088
- ISBN 13
- 9780140443080
- Publisher
- Penguin Classics
- Place of Publication
- London
- This edition first published
- June 24, 1976
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