TWELVE CAESARS: Images of power from the ancient world to the modern
By Mary Beard
ISBN: 978-0691222363 Princeton University Press (2021) – $35.00
The Caesars of Rome continue to beguile us. What is perplexing is why the first twelve – all deeply flawed and several unpleasant men even when alive – are the ones who hold a particular fascination today.
Each man’s character, achievements, and abundant foibles are vividly recounted by Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars, which gives them a familiarity we do not have with other later emperors. Though focused on this ‘dirty dozen’, Mary Beard’s latest book is neither a new translation of Suetonius nor a commentary.
Rather, Beard explains how images of these autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power over the last two millennia. In recent years she has studied and lectured on mistaken identities and on images of power,
