A Scandalous History of the Roman Emperors

by Anthony Blond

Warts and all, Rome's five most illustrious emperors march boldly and baldly through the pages of this eye-opening account of the successors to Julius Caesar. In their wake follow the glories and the gossip, the triumphs and the undebatably atrocious behavior, the extravagance and the scandal. Here are Caesar's nephew Augustus, who suffered from eczema and was terrified of thunder and lightning; the impeccable Tiberius, who ended up sadistic and paranoid on Capri; the totally mad Caligula; treacherous Claudius; and Nero, who fiddled and opposed blood sports. Besides chronicling their marriages, adulteries, conspiracies, murders, nasty habits, and refined tastes, this volume also illuminates the social and political life of Rome in the first century AD, from the sexual mores to imperial law, from Roman sport to the Latin palate, which is explored in a robustly detailed essay by Laura Blond.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Roman History, Biography, Italy

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Ty-Orion]

Заглавието е vile и долнопробно, затова и аз не знам какво очаквах... Резултатът от труда на автора са попретоплени клюки на 2000 години, преписани от Тацит и Светоний. Антъни Блонд се спира върху живота на 6 императора накратко, остатъкът от книгата са глави за живота в Рим - за архитектурата, с какво са се хранили римляните, за робите, за религията и т.н. Като цяло се е получила една много разхвърляна книга, която се опитва да въведе римскодевствения читател в темата, но не успява.

Мисля, че книгата би била шокираща и скандална само за някоя викторианска лейди, отраснала в забутано имение и чела само Библията. Но като се замисля - в Библията има много по-скандални, шокиращи и гнусни неща, така че и викторианката ще остане разочарована.

[Калоян Захариев]

В интерес на истината не видях нищо скандално в тази книга. Интересен исторически труд, който описва моменти от живота на римлянина, които не съм намирал в други книги - неоговото ежедневие, храните, напитките, любимите забавления. Императорите са представени като хора със своите лудости и странности, но и като владетели без да се търси пиперливостта, която сме свикнали да свързваме с имена като Калигула и Нерон.
Тук-там се промъкваше намек за чувство за хумор, който се опитва да разчупи книгата, но не успяваше.
За мен това си е стабилен исторически труд, който се чете с удоволствие и действително обогатява.

[Nightwitch]

If asked to describe this book in one word, that word would be “glib.” This is not a good thing. Blond seems more concerned with landing a good one-liner than actually explaining history, and in general I read it with the understanding that I was not actually getting a well-researched historically-correct account. I have no idea what sources he was using and I suspect there were not many; the bibliography is nonexistent although he does suggest reading Colleen McCullough and Lindsey Davis which, yes, are fun novels but hopefully not actually source texts for a work of nominal historical research. He also introduces one of the few works of history he cites by explaining that the author is an “avowed feminist” but “She writes, however, with charm.” Oh, shove it, dude.

[Lafang]

THAT'S ANTHONY BLOND. Damn. I can't edit that typo.

ANYWAY: Fascinating glimpses into the lives of a culture, upon which much of ours is based. Not too shocking - we haven't changed much in 2000 years.... all the same concerns, politics etc. Really enjoying this.

[Andrew]

This book is oversold as a "scandalous history," when in reality it is just a collection of mildly interesting facts--facts which may or may not even be accurate, judging by reviews on here written by more avid historians of Rome. The author admits to presenting no original research or ideas; he primarily presents well-known information in an informal tone while cutting out the boring bits. This book is good for a light non-fiction travel read that you don't mind getting wet or forgetting in a hotel room.

[Erin Schott]

Based on the book's title, I expected a modern version of Suetonius's salacious court gossip, but this reminded me more of an intro to Roman history class (with some errors). That's not necessarily a bad thing if you want to learn more about Augustus, but it just wasn't targeted at me. However, I did appreciate the mentions of the Maison Carrée and Pont Du Gard since I was in Provence two months ago.

[Hilary]

Despite its salacious title and the opening chapter on sex, this is actually an interesting and informative read. Clearly the author was enjoying himself in the writing of it, and it does lack references etc but he would appear to be very well versed in all things Roman. For a light introduction to the Roman world and the key emperors this is not a bad place to start.

[Kelly]

Adding to Nightwitch's review, this guy is not a very good writer. I tried to read this up to the the middle of the first section and gave up. Blond specializes in run-on sentences. He also contradicts himself constantly and I kept thinking to myself, "What point are you trying to make?" Using big words and phrases does not a good book make.

[Petar Petrov]

Разхвърляно, преписани и сглобено от разни достоверни и не съвсем източници четиво, приличащо на публикация в жълт вестник.

[Chris]

A Scandalous History indeed. Anthony Blond takes us on a wild journey through the lives of six emperors of Rome (though it is argued whether Julius Caesar is counted as an emperor or just a dictator at the end of the Roman Republic.) during the Julio-Claudian dynasty. This spans Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. It tells of their near full history and relatively minor things like how they got their nicknames, such as Caligula means little-boots. In addition to the chapters on each emperor, there are chapters on many other subjects in the daily lives of Romans. It features things like Religion, Food and Sex. Anthony Blond has a bit of a difficult to follow style of writing. In my opinion, he seems to jump around a lot and I didn't always know what he was talking about at the moment. Overall though, he gives you relatively clear view of their lives. I really enjoyed the 'outside' chapters. It truly gives the reader an idea of what it was like to live in the early days of the Roman empire. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Food. Realizing they had quite the disgusting appetite, many of the spices tended toward the strong smelling (often of decay). This chapter was written by Anthony's wife. The final chapter of the book is a day in the life of a well-to-do citizen. It follows from when he awakes and sees his visitors, to his visit with the emperor Nero, the buying of a slave, recreation and finally an extravagant dinner with important guests.

[Nathan]

Love it. Learned primarily that the Romans had two words for oral sex: irrumatio and fellatio. We're all familiar with fellatio, which is to be sucked off. We modern hip types even use the word. However, not so much with irrumatio, which means "to fuck someone in the face". Interestingly, this act is making a comeback in modern porn movies as they struggle to shock, so I wonder whether the word will be similarly rejuvenated.

[Rex Brampton]

Interesting, but not that scandalous. Basically a re-working of Seutonius and a few other sources which you can read for yourself. And I found Mr Blond's sentences to be a bit convoluted, with multiple sub-clauses that leave you wondering at the end of a sentence what it was he was discussing when he started. Two chapters at the end on food and "a day in the life of..." are needed to pad it out to book length, which is surprising given the topic.

[Jeffry]

Read it in my foolish youth. Some student stole my copy from my classroom library ... no doubt due to the "x-rated" content. Trashy. Kinda fun because of it.

[Jonathan]

None