Ten Caesars
Roman Emperors From Augustus to Constantine
Book - 2019
Bestselling classical historian Barry Strauss delivers "an exceptionally accessible history of the Roman Empire...much of Ten Caesars reads like a script for Game of Thrones" ( The Wall Street Journal ) --a summation of three and a half centuries of the Roman Empire as seen through the lives of ten of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine.
In this essential and "enlightening" ( The New York Times Book Review ) work, Barry Strauss tells the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople.
During these centuries Rome gained in splendor and territory, then lost both. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus. Rome's legacy remains today in so many ways, from language, law, and architecture to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Strauss examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business--the government of an empire--by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost.
Ten Caesars is a "captivating narrative that breathes new life into a host of transformative figures" ( Publishers Weekly ). This "superb summation of four centuries of Roman history, a masterpiece of compression, confirms Barry Strauss as the foremost academic classicist writing for the general reader today" ( The Wall Street Journal ).
In this essential and "enlightening" ( The New York Times Book Review ) work, Barry Strauss tells the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople.
During these centuries Rome gained in splendor and territory, then lost both. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus. Rome's legacy remains today in so many ways, from language, law, and architecture to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Strauss examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business--the government of an empire--by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost.
Ten Caesars is a "captivating narrative that breathes new life into a host of transformative figures" ( Publishers Weekly ). This "superb summation of four centuries of Roman history, a masterpiece of compression, confirms Barry Strauss as the foremost academic classicist writing for the general reader today" ( The Wall Street Journal ).
Publisher:
New York :, Simon & Schuster,, 2019
Edition:
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition
ISBN:
9781451668834
Branch Call Number:
937 .0609 STR
Characteristics:
xi, 410 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates :,illustrations, maps, genealogical tables ;,24 cm


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Add a CommentSomehow disappointed.
Annoying is especially reference to modern situations and events like "x was kind of today's ..." or "that was like today's ..."
This doesn't help, especially that for some today's fact we got different experience and now I am starting to guess what really author got in his mind
But some details - yes, they were very valuable
Strauss selected 10 fascinating emperors from Caesar to Constantine to profile, but as a group of disconnected individuals, they don't give the reader an informed overview of the historical ages in which they lived. The emperors come on stage, tell their story, and leave, and the next one enters. Strauss opens new horizons in showing the pervasive political influence of women in the lives of his coterie, but his reliance on the images of his subjects from coins and sculpture to extrapolate beauty and psychological characteristics is useless and annoying.
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