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Augustus
Augustus Caesar is arguably the most important figure in Roman history. Barbara Levick provides a brilliant new re-appraisal of the life and personality of one of Rome's greatest and best known emperors.Barbara Levick is an experienced author and expert on Roman history Fully illustrated Rare polemical interpretation of Augustian politics, with a clear focus on the techniques used to acquire and sustain power Examination of “Augustian Spin”, draws parallels between ancient and modern politicians and autocrats
Paperback
First published March 26, 2010
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About the author
Barbara Levick
28 books6 followersBarbara M. Levick is a British historian, specializing in ancient history. She was educated at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and, since 1959, has been a Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford (now emeritus). She is a prolific writer and occasional broadcaster on Roman history.
Levick is best known to the general public for her biographies of Roman emperors.
Levick is best known to the general public for her biographies of Roman emperors.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 24, 2016
Barbara Levick has written biographies of several imperial figures and they are usually very good, but I wasn't convinced by this one. The interpretive paradigm, that Augustus was consistently driven by a desire for power, but changed and varied his approach like a chameleon (as Julian noted) was reasonable and well established.
The narrative content was very thin indeed: there was never enough material/maps etc. to make this an accessible book for somebody wanting to track the triumvirate, the Varian disaster etc. unless they already knew those things and perhaps Levick is not expecting anybody to come to this without a solid background already: I will not be recommending this as extra reading to A-Level students though (except in short excerpts with maps etc. added).
On the subject of maps the illustrations were a disaster. The Prima Porta Augustus is discussed with a picture so grainy (p.255) it is hard to know what value it serves; coins are rarely illustrated; the Boscoreale cup is grainy, etc. etc. Perhaps colour plates are expensive, but I can photocopy better than that as a handout in school.
The choice of vocabulary is very dense (ashlar? Cynosure? I read bits with Google on standby - as I did to look at the images Levick discusses) and the sentences use colons and semicolons to create impenetrability.
There are also some odd omissions. Levick has written on imperial women, but Livia is never a focus. Even when searching for any hints of Augustus' psychology, the fact he never divorced a wife who did not produce an heir when that was a focus of his principate, and the implications of that was never discussed.
I liked Levicks's Tiberius; this is not nearly so good.
The narrative content was very thin indeed: there was never enough material/maps etc. to make this an accessible book for somebody wanting to track the triumvirate, the Varian disaster etc. unless they already knew those things and perhaps Levick is not expecting anybody to come to this without a solid background already: I will not be recommending this as extra reading to A-Level students though (except in short excerpts with maps etc. added).
On the subject of maps the illustrations were a disaster. The Prima Porta Augustus is discussed with a picture so grainy (p.255) it is hard to know what value it serves; coins are rarely illustrated; the Boscoreale cup is grainy, etc. etc. Perhaps colour plates are expensive, but I can photocopy better than that as a handout in school.
The choice of vocabulary is very dense (ashlar? Cynosure? I read bits with Google on standby - as I did to look at the images Levick discusses) and the sentences use colons and semicolons to create impenetrability.
There are also some odd omissions. Levick has written on imperial women, but Livia is never a focus. Even when searching for any hints of Augustus' psychology, the fact he never divorced a wife who did not produce an heir when that was a focus of his principate, and the implications of that was never discussed.
I liked Levicks's Tiberius; this is not nearly so good.
Displaying 1 of 1 review