****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
My brother was trying to build up a book collection for his son to have. He made sure my nephew got a serious book along with a regular gift for his birthday and Christmas, My brother thought this would be a good book to have. He is no longer here to do this for his son, so I have continued the traditon on my own.The book was in acceptable condition even though the fold on the outside was tearing at the edges. Book is definitely a must read for any interested in Roman history.YesSuetonius is much more fun if gossipy & with an agenda.Good book.The historian of ancient Greece and Rome, Michael Grant, has been a favorite of mine since I happened upon his survey, "History of Rome" (copyright 1978), 25 years ago. Though a popularizer who wrote for a broad audience over 70 books on aspects of the history of the ancient Mediterranean world, Grant was a serious scholar who was trained in Classics at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Grant wrote several scholarly monographs on ancient Greek and Roman coins, as well as standard Penguin Classics translations of Cicero and Tacitus, thus assuring his scholarly credentials.To my mind, Michael Grant is at his best in writing on Roman history, and the 1970s saw Grant complete many of his best works in this field. Grant's book, "The Twelve Caesars," was published in 1975.As he makes clear in his superb introduction to "The Twelve Caesars," Grant is following the model of Suetonius' "Lives of the Caesars" in treating the first 12 Roman "Caesars," beginning with Julius Caesar (died 44 B.C.) and ending with Emperor Domitian (died A.D. 96), including the short-lived reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius in "the year of four emperors," A.D. 68-69. The rich variety of these imperial personalities is fertile ground for the modern historian of ancient Rome, and Grant's portraits of these Roman rulers (usually in the vicinity of 20 pages in length) are succinct but fairly complete. Thus there is the manically driven military genius Julius Caesar; the sickly but masterly constitutional artificer, Augustus; the reluctant but responsible and thoroughly able Tiberius; the gifted yet disillusioned Caligula; the frail and scholarly Claudius; the frustrated poet, Nero; etc., etc.Though future generations of Rome would deem some of these Caesars "good" and others "bad," Grant makes clear that the office of emperor demanded immense amounts of work and energy from its respective holders. To lead military campaigns, supervise the bureaucracy of a far-flung empire, keep a lid on the senators, soldiers, and populace in the city of Rome, and serve as a final judge in the legal affairs of great and small, an observer could pity the emperor his lot and wonder why any man would wish to take it on.In his introduction, Grant makes clear the strengths and weaknesses of the principal Latin literary sources: Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio Cassius. Suetonius was considered a "biographer," and thus, even by his own judgment, inferior to "historians" such as Tacitus and Dio Cassius. But Suetonius has the virtue of including in his imperial portraits all the information he comes across and allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions about a particular ruler. Tacitus, though a gifted stylist and chronicler, is not always a good judge of character. And Dio Cassius can be a perceptive judge of the inherent limitations of any historian attempting to adduce what really transpires in the imperial chambers.As for Grant's own historical efforts, he includes the modern disciplines of numismatics (study of coins), epigraphy (inscriptions), archaeology, and papyrology (study of surviving papyrus manuscripts), in addition to his impeccable grounding in the ancient historians and modern secondary literature to flesh out satisfying, colorful portraits of Rome's first twelve imperial rulers. The end result is a book that is enjoyable and educational to read, though it may not be ideal for the complete novice to Roman history, in which case I would suggest supplementing it with Grant's excellent "History of Rome."With the death of Michael Grant in late 2004, in many ways, a scholarly era came to a close. He died at 89 years of age. He outlived all of his early contemporaries, Syme, Runciman, and Frank Cowell among others. He closed his career as an independent scholar retiring from academia and government service in 1966 to devote himself to full time writing. He stayed active with his last book appearing in the year 2000. His original training was as an academic numismatist which is apparent in this work under consideration. With over fifty books to his credit, he was probably the most productive classicist and historian of the Greco Roman world of the twentieth century. He was an ardent popularizer and enjoyed an immense audience which persists to this day. Michael Grant was one of the few classical historians to win praise from both academics and the interested lay reader.While a fine communicator, it has been noted by other reviewers that Grant can be a challenging read given his vocabulary usage. More troubling to this reader is the lack of footnotes and end notes only which complicates reading this work. Specifically, because some but not all quotes from ancient authors are unattributed in the text. Even at its publication in 1975, let alone in the year 2006, most readers do not have the background in the Greek and Latin classics to easily identify the authors of these unattributed quotes. Also, a woefully lacking suggested reading list of secondary materials is included. One star is duly deducted for these shortcomings. The book opens with a splendid and extended essay on classical sources, biography, history and things Roman. It alerts the reader to many facts and interpretations that make the subsequent text far more intelligible. This opening coupled with a short but deeply insightful conclusion can be read with immense profit without ever even approaching the body of the work. However, this would be mistake as the twelve short biographies in chronological order provide a fascinating overview of the first hundred odd years of the Roman Empire as viewed from its center and through the personages of its rulers. Therein lies both the strength and weakness of the book. Others have devoted thousands of pages to materials Grant covers in limited and truncated form in a few hundred pages.And within those twelve short biographies, I believe he accomplishes much. By Suetonius's standards, Grant provides us with a sober and coherent explanation of the problems and challenges faced by those emperors. That overwork and fear of assassinations were debilitating to all that ruled long enough is made plain in these pages. The Senatorial nobility would sooner or later tire of any ruler and plot against him. And if overwork and sedition by the nobility in Rome were not enough, by the middle of the period under consideration, the praetorian guard would start installing emperors, and this would be followed by emperors installed by the provincial legions. In spite of the brevity of each portrait, many incisive judgements regarding each of these personalities are rendered convincingly by Grant. I find those judgements valuable to an overall understanding of the formative era of the Roman Empire. Within its limitations, this a marvelous work that can be appreciated by those with a modest knowledge of the Roman world. Equally, there is much of interest here for the well read in this area. A careful consideration of this work will reward the diligent reader with some remarkable insights on early Roman imperial rule.Overly indulgent towards these men/fails to mention that Tiberius had Sejanus`s children,a boy and girl,strangled.aswell as Sejanus himself.Tacitus records this and Grant would have known.Wouldn't consider the quality good like Amazon's used books said, however it isn't terrible and it is very usefulNice copy of the book.
