Caligula

Book Details

Library

Author

Allan Massie

Category

History/Fiction

Editor

Reference #

Contributor

Location

Translator

Status

Publisher

Sceptre

Owner

Country

Great Britain

Personal

Language

Read it

Yes

Year Published

2003

Date Read

14/03/2006

ISBN

0340823135

Personal Rating

 6/10

LCCN

Purchase

Edition

Purchase Date

Printing

Acquired from 

Marlborough Library

Binding

Hardcover

Price

$0.00

Pages

279

Value

$0.00

Overview

Gaius Caligula is known as the mad emperor, the one who made his horse a consul. He was violent, vicious and incestuous, a murderer who was himself murdered after a reign of only four years. Yet, when first he succeeded the aged recluse Tiberius, the Romans were delighted. For a few months he even seemed generous and enlightened.

So what went wrong? Or did it? Perhaps the conventional image of Caligula is distorted and he was simply a victim of circumstance and rumour. Who better, then, to tell the tru story of his short life than the Roman nobleman, Lucius, who knew Caligula as a child and remained close to him until the end (and was even more intimate with not only one of Caligula's sisters but also his older brother)?

Through Lucius' worldly-wise eyes, the young emperor emerges as a real man, not a figure of myth. Conspiracies, poisonings and infidelities might pepper his tales, but the full picture of Caligula's life and times is a complex, multi-coloured one. In this marvellously entertaining, witty and illuminating novel, Allan Massie explores the effect of absolute power - as corrosive today as it was in the First Century AD.

Comment

All I knew about Caligula before reading this was that he was a depraced tyrant who shagged anything that moved, including his horse.

Once I got used to the heavy, formal prose used in this story, I learnt quite a bit more - enough to make me more interested in that period of history, and the Roman Empire in general.

Overall, an enjoyable book, but one I wouldn't recommend lightly. It's pretty heavy reading to get into.