The Twelve Caesars by Michael Grant

The Twelve Caesars Reviews

• 
  Roz

  Is it dated? Maybe, I don’t know, I’m not as up on ancient history as I could be. But what I can tell you about this, is that Grant writes with insight, drawing lines between classical authors like Suetonius, Tacitus, and Juvenal (among others) and contemporary scholarship to flesh out the lives of the first dozen Caesars, and he does so with a wry sense of humour to boot. It’s not light reading, but it’s highly readable, even for general audiences, and it’s compelling: I barely put it down. Recommended for ancient history buffs, or anyone who liked HBO’s old Rome series
• 
  Julia

  4/5
  
  Clear overview of the first twelve Roman emperors (including Caesar). Grant roughly bases his survey on Suetonius's De Vita Caesarum for the bibliographic profiles, as well as Tacitus's Annals for historical background. He pursues a clear line of comparison for all twelve emperors, considering their management of the Senate, praetorian guard, and management of imperial duties.
  
  Useful for a brief overview with a clear message, but without much ambiguity. Good for a first step in the Roman imperial history.
• 
  Ruthiella

  I read this in tandem with Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars. This book uses Suetonius as its primary source but expands the biographies by using other sources and places each Caesar in his historical and sociological context. Also, it tries to separate out (or at least re-consider) some of the hearsay recorded by Suetonius. I think the big take away here was that having absolute power over the known world was an exhausting job and only few (Augustus, Claudius, Vespian) did it well.
• 
  James

  If you wish to impress your friends with a knowledge of ancient Rome but only have time to read one book then you won't go too far wrong with Michael Grant.
  
  Very well researched and tightly written. Grants wry humour is especially enjoyable. It's an academic work but more than suitable for the general reader. One you can return to again and again.
• 
  booklady

  Read this many years ago. My current reading of Taylor Caldwell's book on St. Luke set during this timeframe has me interested in rereading at least portions of this.
• 
  Christine

  Not as scandelous as a certain BBC production but interesting none the less.
• 
  Alexander L. Belikoff

  Clearly aimed at famous Suetonius’s work by the same title, Grant’s book supplements the former account with many more sources (from Tacitus and Dio Cassius to modern researchers in Roman History and new findings). Even more important, mere narration of the events is combined with an attempt to analyze and explain them.
  
  Even for those familiar with the subject, there are many discoveries to be made. The Author does a great job demonstrating just what a tremendously back breaking duty the “job” of a Roman Emperor was and how it indeed broke even the strongest of people. Time and again we see how - without a well executed transition plan - a rule of a Caesar ended in a [often violent] disruption and a crisis - only Augustus and Vespasian were lucky enough to grow a fitting successor.
  
  Thanks to the Author, we are able to see each of the Caesars not as a superficial one-dimensional collection of pop-history facts (“Caligula? Of course, he made his horse a Consul!”) but as complex multi-faceted characters. Everyone started with the best intentions, everyone got broken by the duty, sometimes in an ugly way. The Author quotes the famous Lord Acton’s maxim: “Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely” and there is hardly a better book to drive that point home.
  
  Still, it is amazing to witness how the “eternal” Republic rather quickly transitions into an absolute monarchy (while still loudly proclaiming the adherence to the Republican ideals). As uncomfortable as it might be, there are some lessons for all of us to learn: it is indeed a very short way from LIBERTAS POPVLI to LIBERTAS AVGVSTI.
  
  In nuce: what a pleasure! Probably the best book on one of the most interesting and important periods of Roman History - highly accessible, yet deep enough. Most importantly, the Author undertook a titanic work of combining multiple sources both ancient and new to present a well rounded picture. I you plan to read Suetonius, I highly recommend reading this one first.
  
• 
  Russell Reidelberger

  2 Stars = Didn't enjoy a majority of the book but finished it for some reason (probably stubbornness)
  Audio Book
  
  Aside from Julius and a tiny amount about Augustus, Caligula, and Nero, I don't know much about the early Caesars. I thought this book would be a good starter book, and I guess it is. The problem with this book was mostly if not entirely because of the audiobook.
  
  Although the reader has a great voice (I thought she sounded like Judi Dench), her voice was mostly the same tempo and cadence. Because of this, I often found my mind wandering and had to go back and listen to large chunks of it again.
  
  As far as the content, Grant gives an overview of each Caesar's persona but often just skims the political events during their reign. To be fair, I probably would have retained more if I had read the book instead of listening to it. Ultimately, I was left wanting more, so this book did inspire me to read more about Rome.
• 
  David Hill

  This book is a very brief survey of Roman leadership from 49 BC to 96 AD.
  
  Very brief. The text is 260 pages which includes about 30 pages of introduction and conclusion. So, on average we're at less than 20 pages per Caesar. Nobody gets less than about ten, which means a single year (the Year of the Four Emporers) gets as much coverage as Julius or Augustus.
  
  I've read a fair amount of fiction about Julius and Augustus but knew nothing about any of the rest. Except for the cliches, that is: Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Caligula was... Caligula. I think this book satisfied my curiosity about these guys. I might have been happier if the book was twice as long, but I knew that it was short before I picked it up.
  
  Grant relies, for the most part, on half a dozen sources: Suetonius, Tacitus, Seneca, Juvenal, Dio. The text is more reportorial than literary.
  
  Now I'd like to find something good about Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius.
• 
  Gerry

  The book contains brief sketches of Rome's imperial rulers from Julius Caesar through Domitian. Two ideas I came away with are that, to be successful (or at least not killed), one had to have the Senate on one's side (or at least not P.O.d); the other was Grant's saying the most successful of the Caesars were capable of hard work. I appreciated the sketch of Domitian, whom I once thought of as just a nut case; he was deeper than that. Nero started out decently enough, but lost his way. Grant doesn't dwell on the persecution of the Christians--just a brief mention in passing--thereby putting that piece of history (and Quo Vadis) in perspective.
• 
  Curby Graham

  A book I had intended to read for some time. Excellent discussion of the 12 Caesars - from Julius to Domitian. Grant does a superb job of framing their lives and skillfully interacts with the writings of Tacitus, Pliny, Dio Cassius, Josephus etc.
  
  This inspired me to go and watch the BBC series "I, Claudius" of all things.
• 
  Holly Bennett

  It is amazing how good this book is. You don’t just read it once because it is packed with so much history. Also, for being written so long ago, the work is based on Suetonius and Tacitus mainly, it is very readable and fascinating. Take your time reading it and do come back to reading it again.
• 
  Kristen Fort

  Modeled in the same way as Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars but using Suetonius, Tacitus, Cassius Dio and other authors to write an engaging narrative of the emperors.
• 
  Yve Stone-chase

  More of a personal take on each of them. Many other books are necessary to know what each did
• 
  Már Másson

  Stórskemmtileg þýðing hjá Illuga. Mæli með þessari í lang keyrslu
• 
  Peter Lipták

  Takzvaná populárna história. Grant sa číta výborne.
• 
  William Dury

  Readable brief biographies of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Year of Four Emperors Marx-Brothers-movie-dust/up and ensuing Flavian line. You know the Julio-Claudian names (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero) and even, to some extent, I bet, their personalities. The Year of Four (Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, the last man standing) goes by so fast it’s hard to keep track of and, you know, why? Vespasian (Emperor 69-79) hung on for a bit and his quote (“Dear me, I think I’m becoming a god”) is very funny and says a lot about upper class Romans’ attitude towards religion; Titus (79-81) is the soldier and Diocletian (81-96) the authoritarian so influential for Tacitus, and, inevitably in turn, our own views. Grant ignores the gaudy stories and emphasizes what hard work the job entailed. If you didn’t work hard, if you got sloppy, the Praetorian Guard was on hand and ready with the next candidate. Enjoy your power, Sir!
• 
  Shawn Thrasher

  Was it Thomas Jefferson who wrote a new version of the Gospels without any of Jesus's miracles? Because this sort of felt like that - only instead of the miracles, Grant took out almost all of the sexual gossip and other gossipy bits, just leaving in (mostly) the facts. The Gospels without the miracles are instructive, but are they as much fun to read? Ditto for the Twelve Caesars without the depravity. Grant left in some of the splendid bits (and tried to disprove some of the more unbelievable bits; Tiberius's trysts in the swimming pools with little tadpoles, for example). But this was still pretty dry going. Instructive thought, and interesting because the emperors, even stripped of their sexual peccadilloes, are still mostly villains, and so cool to read about.
• 
  Al

  This was a very light read, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Grant includes a lot of information on how these first rulers impacted the political development of the early principate, and their effect on their immediate surroundings, the city of Rome. Grant makes an interesting point about the crushing work load that the position entailed, and it was fascinating to look at these men through that lens. He critically uses multiple classical sources: Suetonius, Tacitus, Livy, Philo, Virgil, Seneca, and Juvenal, among others, as well as many secondary sources. Not an academically rigorous book, but a pleasant read, nonetheless.
• 
  jon

  Grant's work is like an expanded companion to reading Suetonius, a complement of additional readings and input from other contemporary or relevant ancient voices on the Caesars (suitably footnoted for reference), and woven into an informative and insightful narrative of their lives. Imagine reading Suetonius in the study of the Caesars with an eminent classicist beside you to add questions, comments, and apprise you as go. I picture this work rising out of Grant's research and lectures. An invaluable study source as well as an enjoyable read.
• 
  Susan

  6/14/2011: (REVISED)
  True, this isn't the worst book ever. It does have its interesting moments but considering the other recent nonfiction books I've discovered, I think I have to lower my ratings on this book. It IS boring in several parts. I never chose to voluntarily read it, and I never actually finished this book despite that this was assigned as my summer reading book. Only people who LOVE the Roman empire and the twelve caesars would enjoy every page of this book.
• 
  Tori

  While it was an interesting look at 12 of the Caesars, I couldn't help but feel it somewhat partial as to only how Rome saw them. For example, when Titus was described, he was told to rule with mildness, while earlier in his chapter we are told of his horrific persecution of the Jews by the thousands. I was also somewhat disappointed that I didn't learn much about Rome itself during these time periods, which is unfortunate as I think it would have helped me get a better picture of these men.
• 
  Hannah

  Grant's coverage makes for an interesting read for those interested in the Roman emperors and looking for general overviews rather than anything in-depth. He has a simple style that makes reading this easy rather than a headache, and as such, I'd recommend this to non-experts. People looking for scholarly sources, however, would probably find Grant's book of little use.
• 
  Ana Luísa

  Such an interesting book if you’re interested in the Roman history. I would recommend, however, having a dictionary beside you, because there are a lot of words that are kind of unusual and repeated frequently.
• 
  Jonathan

  A very informative take on Suetonius's book about the first twelve emperors of Rome. Very interesting and humanizing.