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Tiberius Caesar
The great conundrum of his character and the political significance of his long reign, which solidified the imperial government of Rome, render the life of Tiberius Caesar (42 B. C.-37 A. D.) second emperor of Rome and successor of Augustus a subject of perennial interest. From the mass of available evidence, two men can be constructed, both equally one, an upright, gruff soldier-statesman, austere, just, capable; the other, a corrupt, murderous tyrant with gargantuan and depraved appetites. In another in the series of superb biographies of ancient figures, G. P. Baker provides an astute and fair-minded assesment of Rome's most psychologically complex and contradictory emperor, a man who according to Roman historian Dio Cassius "possessed many virtues and many vices."
Hardcover
First published November 14, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 29, 2011
My copy is a hardcover and published in 1967 by Barnes & Noble, INC.
So far the stand-out unique thing about this book is that the last person to check it out from the Bryan Library was in 1999, and before that it hadn't seeen the light of day since 1970. Not a very popular read....
Baker, George Phillip. Tiberius Caesar. Barnes and Noble Inc,1929
In Tiberius Caesar, G.P. Baker examines the life of the third great Caesar and second emperor of Rome, Tiberius Claudius Nero, otherwise known as Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. Baker begins his biography with Tiberius as a boy of thirteen, riding in the triumph of his step-father Augustus Caesar, and ends with his death at age seventy seven, an old man both loved and hated, mocked and revered.
This biography deals with three main concentrations: Augustus and Tiberius’s relationship, the military and battles of the time, and the political intrigue surrounding Tiberius after he became emperor. Though the ideas are generally presented in that order, there is some overlapping. Baker goes into detail about Augustus’s difficulty in finding an heir, Rome’s struggle with the Germans, and the chaotic and ruinous career of Tiberius’s wife Julia. Baker’s biography is not just about Tiberius Caesar and his life, but about those who surrounded the emperor, the great events of the time, and the political and social drama that would forever change the course of human history.
I found G.P Baker to have a dry, but interesting writing style. He frequently goes beyond the facts and attempts to analyze the thoughts and emotions of Tiberius and his compatriots. His writing is engaging and creative, but frequently boring. His military scenes especially are very descriptive and heavily detailed.
While Baker treats his topic fairly, he shows more lenience than other authors usually do, especially with Tiberius. “The feet of Tiberius were set upon a road which led to...isolation. As he rose up in fame and importance his companions became fewer; as he rose farther, they would become fewer still.” (62) Baker presents Tiberius as a capable man struck hard and unkindly by life and whose grief and bitterness turned him into the cynical, embittered old emperor remembered today.
For a man who wrote biographies, there is surprisingly little information available about G. P. Baker. He was the author of eight books, including Sulla the Fortunate, Hannibal, Augustus, and Constantine the Great. Of those eight, seven are biographies of historical figures and six have to do with ancient Rome. Baker’s most popular work is Sulla the Fortunate, a biography about one of Rome’s earliest and most terrifying generals.
James J. Bloom, reviewer for Roman History Books and More, offers some more information into the nature and life of this biographical author. Born George Phillip Baker in 1879, he wrote most of his books during the 1920s and 1930s. Completely deaf, he was unable to join the English armed forces, but avidly studied military history and “worked as a civilian official for the Royal Artillery for much of his life.” (Bloom par. 6) He refused to be satisfied with second-hand information, and frequently went directly to the original text. He did not consider himself a professor or “soldier-scholar” but “strove to enlighten his lay audience as well as to tell an adventure story of strong leaders struggling against economic and political inevitability.” (Bloom par. 6) He died in 1951 at age 72. (Bloom)
What sort of a man survived two World Wars, lived life completely deaf, and avidly studied military history? Was he married? Did his books see popularity during his lifetime? Nobody seems to know. Amazon and Barnes and Noble carry his books, but only note is that he is the author of .Sulla the Fortunate.
Tiberius Caesar was a good book, but not one I necessarily recommend. It gets slow very easily. It can be interesting though, especially when Baker starts musing on the emotions and relationships of some of the most known figures in the ancient world. He handles his subjects fairly and I would read more by him.
So far the stand-out unique thing about this book is that the last person to check it out from the Bryan Library was in 1999, and before that it hadn't seeen the light of day since 1970. Not a very popular read....
Baker, George Phillip. Tiberius Caesar. Barnes and Noble Inc,1929
In Tiberius Caesar, G.P. Baker examines the life of the third great Caesar and second emperor of Rome, Tiberius Claudius Nero, otherwise known as Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. Baker begins his biography with Tiberius as a boy of thirteen, riding in the triumph of his step-father Augustus Caesar, and ends with his death at age seventy seven, an old man both loved and hated, mocked and revered.
This biography deals with three main concentrations: Augustus and Tiberius’s relationship, the military and battles of the time, and the political intrigue surrounding Tiberius after he became emperor. Though the ideas are generally presented in that order, there is some overlapping. Baker goes into detail about Augustus’s difficulty in finding an heir, Rome’s struggle with the Germans, and the chaotic and ruinous career of Tiberius’s wife Julia. Baker’s biography is not just about Tiberius Caesar and his life, but about those who surrounded the emperor, the great events of the time, and the political and social drama that would forever change the course of human history.
I found G.P Baker to have a dry, but interesting writing style. He frequently goes beyond the facts and attempts to analyze the thoughts and emotions of Tiberius and his compatriots. His writing is engaging and creative, but frequently boring. His military scenes especially are very descriptive and heavily detailed.
While Baker treats his topic fairly, he shows more lenience than other authors usually do, especially with Tiberius. “The feet of Tiberius were set upon a road which led to...isolation. As he rose up in fame and importance his companions became fewer; as he rose farther, they would become fewer still.” (62) Baker presents Tiberius as a capable man struck hard and unkindly by life and whose grief and bitterness turned him into the cynical, embittered old emperor remembered today.
For a man who wrote biographies, there is surprisingly little information available about G. P. Baker. He was the author of eight books, including Sulla the Fortunate, Hannibal, Augustus, and Constantine the Great. Of those eight, seven are biographies of historical figures and six have to do with ancient Rome. Baker’s most popular work is Sulla the Fortunate, a biography about one of Rome’s earliest and most terrifying generals.
James J. Bloom, reviewer for Roman History Books and More, offers some more information into the nature and life of this biographical author. Born George Phillip Baker in 1879, he wrote most of his books during the 1920s and 1930s. Completely deaf, he was unable to join the English armed forces, but avidly studied military history and “worked as a civilian official for the Royal Artillery for much of his life.” (Bloom par. 6) He refused to be satisfied with second-hand information, and frequently went directly to the original text. He did not consider himself a professor or “soldier-scholar” but “strove to enlighten his lay audience as well as to tell an adventure story of strong leaders struggling against economic and political inevitability.” (Bloom par. 6) He died in 1951 at age 72. (Bloom)
What sort of a man survived two World Wars, lived life completely deaf, and avidly studied military history? Was he married? Did his books see popularity during his lifetime? Nobody seems to know. Amazon and Barnes and Noble carry his books, but only note is that he is the author of .Sulla the Fortunate.
Tiberius Caesar was a good book, but not one I necessarily recommend. It gets slow very easily. It can be interesting though, especially when Baker starts musing on the emotions and relationships of some of the most known figures in the ancient world. He handles his subjects fairly and I would read more by him.
December 30, 2019
"It [luxurious wealth] produced a small number of unimportant rich men instead of a large number of important poor men."
"The dreams of mankind hover with pleasant regret over its fierce and romantic youth."
"Man, though rational, is unreasonable."
"...nothing is more dangerous than a fool in power."
"It was good enough [to] prevent people from doing evil, since it was impossible to prevent them speaking it."
"...a consensus of lost sheep is seldom much guide to a shepherd."
"...the art of arriving at an understanding with other men is the whole art of civilization."
"Though his watch might be unsleeping, yet nevertheless he began to dream dreams."
"There is no bitterness so bitter as that which springs from the experience of treachery."
"...in every normal man's life there must be ... many hours in which he can freely forget that he possesses a back to be stabbed in."
"The world is strewn with the dust of unprofitable martyrs."
And, so on.
After reading this, my second book by George Philip (G.P.) Baker (the first being a bio of the earlier Roman general and dictator, Sulla, reviewed here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), I am convinced that if one reads G.P. one does so as much for the historical narrative as for the goldmine of pithy aphorisms, trenchant observations, and sardonic truisms. My hardbound 1969 Barnes & Noble ex-College of Idaho edition was feathered with yellow post-it flag markers. Mr. Baker does have a way with words, though I suspect 90-odd years on from when this book was first published, his style is perhaps now an acquired taste.
Generally what we want from historians are accuracy, impartiality, illumination, and a cogent literate narrative that ties it all together. Though not a professional scholar, Mr. Baker is well read and as such he quotes the Roman historians and provides a scattering of footnoting but no bibliography. I am no Tiberius expert, but the life-arc of Baker’s Tiberius closely follows what I have read elsewhere (Suetonius, Michael Grant … Tacitus I have yet to read) but is certainly less gossipy than Suetonius. Baker – due to either the times the book was written, the audience it was written for (being a “popular history”), his own moral countenance, or his distrust of the more salacious and caustic rumors penned by the ancient historians – focuses on the military campaigns, political maneuverings, and dynastic machinations of Tiberius and his times.
Tiberius Claudius Nero has, perhaps unfairly, had come down to us as gloomy, unpleasant, a sexual deviant and eventually a bloody tyrant. Baker does much to disabuse the reader of this negativity. Yes, the second princeps was uncomfortable in his own skin, much less surrounded by the clamoring of others. Augustus was a hard act to follow, and it might be considered setting one up to fail to expect an Augustus II. Baker does not gloss over Tiberius’ morose awkwardness, but he does put the shine to the notion that he was a first rate intellect and grasped all too well, if uncomfortably, the reigns of imperial power.
What the author does do so well is paint a picture of the people and times. I certainly felt that I came to understand the man, as much as may be possible through the lens of multiple historians and 2000 years. There is an assumption that the reader is moderately well-versed in the Classics. This is, unfortunately, not so much the case now so the diligent reader will want a ready recourse to Wikipedia. The weakest part of the book by far is the final chapter where Baker wanders into the tangled underbrush of Stoicism and Christianity before debouching on the sand of monarchism: “No greater error could be made than to imagine that this question of succession is artificial or unimportant.” Given our times now, I would say that G.P. Baker has once again hit the nail on its pithy head.
"The dreams of mankind hover with pleasant regret over its fierce and romantic youth."
"Man, though rational, is unreasonable."
"...nothing is more dangerous than a fool in power."
"It was good enough [to] prevent people from doing evil, since it was impossible to prevent them speaking it."
"...a consensus of lost sheep is seldom much guide to a shepherd."
"...the art of arriving at an understanding with other men is the whole art of civilization."
"Though his watch might be unsleeping, yet nevertheless he began to dream dreams."
"There is no bitterness so bitter as that which springs from the experience of treachery."
"...in every normal man's life there must be ... many hours in which he can freely forget that he possesses a back to be stabbed in."
"The world is strewn with the dust of unprofitable martyrs."
And, so on.
After reading this, my second book by George Philip (G.P.) Baker (the first being a bio of the earlier Roman general and dictator, Sulla, reviewed here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), I am convinced that if one reads G.P. one does so as much for the historical narrative as for the goldmine of pithy aphorisms, trenchant observations, and sardonic truisms. My hardbound 1969 Barnes & Noble ex-College of Idaho edition was feathered with yellow post-it flag markers. Mr. Baker does have a way with words, though I suspect 90-odd years on from when this book was first published, his style is perhaps now an acquired taste.
Generally what we want from historians are accuracy, impartiality, illumination, and a cogent literate narrative that ties it all together. Though not a professional scholar, Mr. Baker is well read and as such he quotes the Roman historians and provides a scattering of footnoting but no bibliography. I am no Tiberius expert, but the life-arc of Baker’s Tiberius closely follows what I have read elsewhere (Suetonius, Michael Grant … Tacitus I have yet to read) but is certainly less gossipy than Suetonius. Baker – due to either the times the book was written, the audience it was written for (being a “popular history”), his own moral countenance, or his distrust of the more salacious and caustic rumors penned by the ancient historians – focuses on the military campaigns, political maneuverings, and dynastic machinations of Tiberius and his times.
Tiberius Claudius Nero has, perhaps unfairly, had come down to us as gloomy, unpleasant, a sexual deviant and eventually a bloody tyrant. Baker does much to disabuse the reader of this negativity. Yes, the second princeps was uncomfortable in his own skin, much less surrounded by the clamoring of others. Augustus was a hard act to follow, and it might be considered setting one up to fail to expect an Augustus II. Baker does not gloss over Tiberius’ morose awkwardness, but he does put the shine to the notion that he was a first rate intellect and grasped all too well, if uncomfortably, the reigns of imperial power.
What the author does do so well is paint a picture of the people and times. I certainly felt that I came to understand the man, as much as may be possible through the lens of multiple historians and 2000 years. There is an assumption that the reader is moderately well-versed in the Classics. This is, unfortunately, not so much the case now so the diligent reader will want a ready recourse to Wikipedia. The weakest part of the book by far is the final chapter where Baker wanders into the tangled underbrush of Stoicism and Christianity before debouching on the sand of monarchism: “No greater error could be made than to imagine that this question of succession is artificial or unimportant.” Given our times now, I would say that G.P. Baker has once again hit the nail on its pithy head.
July 13, 2011
This is a sympathetic and very readable biography of Tiberius, the second emperor of Rome. It was hard for me to overcome the unflattering picture of Tiberius from
by Robert Graves, but I think this may have done it. And I very much like Baker's writing style.
by Robert Graves, but I think this may have done it. And I very much like Baker's writing style.
December 18, 2014
It is hard for me to rate such a book this lowly, for it is knowing and at times brilliant, both in its ideas and its prose. Yet much is muddled, confusing, and flabby. There is a great book inside screaming to get out.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews