Caligula

Used
Paperback
2004
$3.42

Gaius Caligula is known as the mad emperor, the one who made his horse a consul. He was violent and vicious, a murderer and guilty of committing incest with his sisters. Yet, when he succeeded the aged recluse Tiberius, the Romans were delighted and for a few months at least he seemed generous and enlightened. So what went wrong? Why was he murdered after a reign of only four years? Is the conventional picture true or false: was he mad and evil or the victim of circumstance and rumour? Is it possible to take a sympathetic view of Caligula...and is it possible to make sense of him? In his compelling new novel Allan Massie peels back the mask of the monster of popular myth to expose the young emperor as a real man and explore the truth of his brief but tempestuous reign.

Synopsis

Gaius Caligula is known as the mad emperor, the one who made his horse a consul. He was violent and vicious, a murderer and guilty of committing incest with his sisters. Yet, when he succeeded the aged recluse Tiberius, the Romans were delighted and for a few months at least he seemed generous and enlightened. So what went wrong? Why was he murdered after a reign of only four years? Is the conventional picture true or false: was he mad and evil or the victim of circumstance and rumour? Is it possible to take a sympathetic view of Caligula...and is it possible to make sense of him? In his compelling new novel Allan Massie peels back the mask of the monster of popular myth to expose the young emperor as a real man and explore the truth of his brief but tempestuous reign.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Edition: New Ed
Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 01 Sep 2004
ISBN 10: 0340823143
ISBN 13: 9780340823149
Book Overview: Was Caligula not so bad after all? In the bestselling tradition of his Roman Quartet, Allan Massie takes on one of the most notorious Roman emperors

Media Reviews

CALIGULA is an impressive addition to a sequence of novels that in their sustained interest and detailed recreation of a society at once alien and familiar must rank as one of the most important historical chronicles in contemporary fiction. * Barry Unsworth, Spectator *

Author Bio

Allan Massie is the award-winning author of many novels, including his Roman Quartet - Antony, Augustus, Tiberius and Caesar - as well as several works of non-fiction. He lives in the Scottish Borders and writes for the Daily Telegraph and the Scotsman.