Caligula : a biography
(Book)
Author
Published
Berkeley : University of California Press, [2011].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
227 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Status
Main Library - Adult
BIO CALIGULA
1 available
BIO CALIGULA
1 available
Description
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Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Main Library - Adult | BIO CALIGULA | On Shelf |
More Details
Published
Berkeley : University of California Press, [2011].
Language
English
UPC
40019825389
Notes
General Note
Originally published in German: München : C.H. Beck, ©2003, with title Caligula : eine Biographie.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-218) and index.
Description
The infamous emperor Caligula ruled Rome from A.D. 37 to 41 as a tyrant who ultimately became a monster. An exceptionally smart and cruelly witty man, Caligula made his contemporaries worship him as a god. He drank pearls dissolved in vinegar and ate food covered in gold leaf. He forced men and women of high rank to have sex with him, turned part of his palace into a brothel, and committed incest with his sisters. He wanted to make his horse a consul. Torture and executions were the order of the day. Both modern and ancient interpretations have concluded from this alleged evidence that Caligula was insane. But was he?
Description
This biography tells a different story of the well-known emperor. In a deft account written for a general audience, Aloys Winterling opens a new perspective on the man and his times. Basing Caligula on a thoroughly new assessment of the ancient sources, he sets the emperor's story into the context of the political system and the changing relations between the Senate and the emperor during Caligula's time and finds a new rationality explaining his notorious brutality. --Book Jacket.
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