Blond's Roman Emperors

London: Quartet Books, 1995 Book. As New. Hardcover. 1st UK Edition. "Anthony Blond pens portraits of the Emperors of Ancient Rome that are revealing and, at times, hilarious. Julius Caesar, founder of the dynasty, shows up as an arrogant charmer and a swank; Augustus, his great-nephew, as a lonely little man who uses lifts in his shoes; Tiberius, his son-in-law and stepson, as a mean-spirited but honourable public servant; Caligula, doubly royal, as a fairy-tale black princeps, loved by his servants; Claudius, his uncle, as the most scheming and murderous of all and the only undivided heterosexual; Nero, his stepson and great-great-grandson of Augustus, as an architectural visionary who is anti-"human"- blood-sports. The Emperors themselves are set against their background in a series of essays on the Roman army, sexual mores, life in Rome, the institution of slavery, Roman law and lawyers (notably Cicero), the Herods and the Jews. In films like Ben Hur and Quo Vadis, and novels like Robert Graves's I, Claudius and Anthony Burgess' The Kingdom of the Wicked, the Emperors are seen as monsters capable only of organizing orgies. Blond uses the latest biographies and recent archaeological research, in a work that is informed as it is individual. He challenges the popular view of these very different characters and puts the record straight. " 210p. illus.index.