Domitian: Tragic Tyrant

by Patricia Southern

Domitian was only nineteen when he made his first appearance in the senate. It was also his first meeting with the men who were to bring about his downfall. Following his assassination in 96 AD after a reign that had lasted fifteen turbulent years, the senate declared the memory of this, the last of the Flavian emperors damned forever. Why? The surviving record relates tales of unbelievable depravity - Domitian's reign being described as the darkest in history, full of terror and uncertainty. Suetonius documents all Domitian's eccentricities, idiosyncrasies and crimes in ascending order of seriousness, culminating in the list of executions of senators - ten in fifteen years. But was his reign as bad as it has been portrayed? Why did contemporary authors have no good word for him even though their careers were advanced by his imperial favour? Many of the emperor's earlier achievements were enduring and well-advised - his administrative arrangements survived him, unchanged by later emperors - and his frontier wars were by no means ill-considered. Indeed, the number of senators murdered by him was far smaller than those killed by Claudius. Something indefinable had gone wrong between Domitian and the senate, but what? In this new in-depth study, Pat Southern distinguishes fact from fiction. She strips away the hyperbole and sensationalism from the literary record to present a clear picture of the youth and reign of a man who was not as black as he was painted but who caused undoubted suffering which must be accounted for. For the first time Domitian is examined from a psychological point of view, to reveal a living breathing individual - offering a more reasonable explanation of thetragedy of his reign to satisfy both his detractors and his few champions.

Genres: Biography, History

164 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 1997

Reviews

[Brandon Sitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

“[Domitian] was also, whatever his other faults, not a fool; had he been so, posterity might have dealt more kindly with him.”

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was recommended to me as the ‘go to’ book for studying Emperor Domitian A.D. 81-96. I requested the loan of this book from my local library since the hardback copy was priced at £93.99 on Amazon; paperback at £35.99; and Kindle at £26.99 - none of which I could afford. I’m absolutely delighted to say that Aberdeenshire Libraries, and Kintore in particular, did me proud by acquiring a paperback copy for me.

This gave me many some insights about Domitian that I wouldn’t have managed to extract from other sources. I particularly enjoyed the references Pat Southern used from contemporary and later sources – poets and writers – which I personally can’t read in the original Latin or Greek. These focused on an emperor who knew he was always going to come to power after the successful careers of his brother Titus, and father Vespasian. Whether, or not, he had anything to do with the early demise of his brother Titus, it was an onerous task to assume the mantle of the emperor during the expansion of the Roman Empire when there were many other ‘power hungry’ military commanders with multiple Roman legions backing them.

I didn’t learn very much about Domitian’s policies regarding Britannia but reading between the lines of Pat Southern’s text, Domitian had to concentrate on the insurrection that was closest to Rome. What happened on the periphery of the western Empire boundary was not his main concern.

[Vicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very misleading. Good as far as historical information and "giving all sides," but incredibly sucky as far as psychological evaluation like it's presented.

[DS25 · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'autrice scrive molto bene. La ricostruzione storica tuttavia risulta poco interessante per la qualità miserevole delle fonti, che obbliga a fare ricostruzioni ardite e spesso controverse. Contrariamente al Brizzi prende mezzo voto in più perché presenta un apparato geografico di rispetto - che in un libro così corto non è poca cosa.

[Windsor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a good book.

You will find on most of the books on emperors, at least Roman, they are either crazy, interesting, or disgusting. This guy happens to be the first two. Pat Southern was already one of my favorite authors for his earlier book in this series on Augustus. I think he tends to shy away from family issues with Domitian, which is kinda the reason Domitian got into power, at least from what I read in the book. Southern fact-tells rather than tell you what Domitian means to the empire. Domitian is the product of jealousy and bad family relationships, and I feel Southern doesn't touch on that, or at least in the way I thought. Maybe that's just an opinion I disagree with, which is why history is so interesting. Different opinions.

[Teo Hynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very well written about a Caesar that is not as well known as others such as Julius and Augustus. It would seem that some of the psychological evaluation is explicit, but other aspects of it are much less overt and encourage the reader to draw up some conclusions on his or her own using the evidence presented in the narrative. Overall, it was a lot of fun to read.