Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor [Hardcover]

Firstly let me say that I enjoyed this biography it provides a broad sweep to the life of Augustus, its well written, the author has an easy writing style and it includes small details that help us to understand everyday life in Ancient rome. For example, the description of a typical day in the life of Augustus and his wife Liva - their routine, their movements and the food they ate. It is not however an academic work, as although the author clearly knows his subject one of the most annoying things is a lack of footnotes. Often on a page it will be stated that Augustus once stated or once did or thought or said and you think where does that come from. If you turn to the appendix, it only contains one footnote per page, so not everything is referenced and consequently one has no means of knowing where the author obtained his information. For myself I found this very, very irritating as it was impossible to cross reference or even build up an idea of where the main original sources are. There is also not a great deal of analysis of Rome at the time, how the army worked, what the social structure was, so its not either a book for someone looking to understand life in rome in general. As a result, I could not recommend this book for anyone serious about studying Roman history.

Having made those statements I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, its well written, the writer writes as if he knew Augustus personally and his anecdotes such as ' when at the hairdressers he used to read or write '' may or may not be assigned a footnote but they make for an entertaining read. The author clearly has respect for his subject but in general does not pronounce judgement rather tells the facts as we know them in an entertaining way. And of course the subject matter is interesting, plots, coup d'etat, Antony & Cleopatra, adultary, fighting and winning battles, court intrigue, political intrigue, creating an empire all juicy subjects by themselves.

So despite the lack of footnotes if like me you want to understand more about one of the europeans who have had an impact on our history and society, and want to achieve that in one shot through a book thats readable as well as informative then its a great place to start.

I ordered this expecting a dry-as-dust account of the life of Augustus. (I'll confess - I'd been a massive fan of HBO's 'ROME', and wanted to learn more about this fascinating, ice-blooded contradiction of a character.)

One thing this book is NOT is 'dry-as-dust.' Personally I found it much more of a page-turner than most of the novels I've read this year.

Not only will you learn a lot about the First Emperor, but you'll get a fascinating insight into his world, and the life and custom of ancient Rome.

If history at school had been like this, perhaps I wouldn't have failed so abysmally!

I recommend this not only as a great way to get familiar with the life and time of Augustus, but also as a flat-out page-turning good read.

A magnificent and well written life of this great Roman who dominated his Empire's public life for half a century and gave his name to a title used by his successors, a month of the year and a modern English adjective. He created the idea of Western Europe. The author's style is partly chronological and partly thematic, dictated by the paucity of surviving sources for the second half of Augustus's life as helmsman of the Roman world, a surprising state of affairs for such a prominent subject. A great read.