A Scandalous History of the Roman Emperors

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.