- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre; New Ed edition (1 Sep 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340823143
- ISBN-13: 978-0340823149
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 343,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'CALIGULA is an impressive addition to a sequence of novels that in their sustained interest and detailed recreation of a society at once alien and familiar must rank as one of the most important historical chronicles in contemporary fiction.' (Barry Unsworth, Spectator )
Sunday Times
This is a thoughtful and chilling portrait of a world swayed by the Will to Power.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this, to be honest, to find out more about the shocking and absurd/mad side that one attributes to Caligula. This is really played down in the book, but far from being disappointed I found it interesting, particularly as a study in unbridled power and the psychological consequences of it. Massie does a sterling job of presenting the information in such a way as to clarify WHY Caligula might have acted as he did, rather than reverting to "He was mad" as an explanation. Recommended.
Format:Paperback
Massie's effort at the third Claudio-Julian Emperor, Caligula, one of history's atypical evil leaders is presented in a sympathetic slant here, more pages devoted to understanding the plight of a man upon whom greatness was thrust, but who was ill-equipped to deal with leading the world's greatest empire than actually detailing the nature of his brutality. Caligula, an emperor, whom for Massie at least, used the Empire as his plaything, floating in a fantasy world and he never sniffed a glimmer of the reality it really meant.
The story is narrated as unofficial biography at Agrippina's request, by an anonymous man of senatorial rank who became Gaius' closest confidante. Massie runs through the complexities of the Julio-Claudian family and the ptolemaic murders that went on as each side of the family fought for political pre-eminence after Augustus' death. He moves through the Roman world of Tiberius, all the time seeking to explain the reasons behind Caligula's paranoia and desperate need for people to like him. Mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts are all portrayed as either heroically felled by evil relations (such as Germanicus) or as politcal vipers scheming to get puppets on the imperial throne whom they could control. It all moved towards a manipulated, ever fearful leader who was never comfortable on the imperial throne Augustus had created out of the republican ashes.
Massie takes us through the usual Suetonian stories about Caligua, from his gallivanting across the Bay of Baiae, ensuring his horse, Incitatus, became a consul, the nightly trips to the Subaru, to his incestuous love for Drusilla (whose death removes the only person he ever really loved and trusted) at the same time seeing it through the inextricably entwined narrator whose own life it shaped by the understandable madness - his loss of his wife, Caesonia the prime example - that assails Caligula. Midway Agrippana almost apologies for his behaviour when she says: "Gaius is the most cursed of all. He destroys everything he touches. It's his madness. It can't last." (p169)
By the end Caligula's brief tenure is over, ended at the point of a praetorian sword, Claudius is emperor and our narrator is in exile. This is Massie's Apologia for Caligula, an attempt to redress the Suetonian image of the man who should never have been king which has been further confounded by films such as `Caligula' and you come away with a slightly sour taste of a twenty first century apology for everything. Namely, it was is upbringing that was reponsible for the man he became. All sense of justice and culpability is removed and familial problems are the root cause. There is an acceptance that personal responsibility is not an option and that he was a product of the system. Somehow, it doesn't quite hold water. Massie's style is as languid as ever and he protrays a world of decadence and fantasy that doesn't bring ancient Rome to life but certainly acts as an apology for the image that history has created of Caligula.
The story is narrated as unofficial biography at Agrippina's request, by an anonymous man of senatorial rank who became Gaius' closest confidante. Massie runs through the complexities of the Julio-Claudian family and the ptolemaic murders that went on as each side of the family fought for political pre-eminence after Augustus' death. He moves through the Roman world of Tiberius, all the time seeking to explain the reasons behind Caligula's paranoia and desperate need for people to like him. Mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts are all portrayed as either heroically felled by evil relations (such as Germanicus) or as politcal vipers scheming to get puppets on the imperial throne whom they could control. It all moved towards a manipulated, ever fearful leader who was never comfortable on the imperial throne Augustus had created out of the republican ashes.
Massie takes us through the usual Suetonian stories about Caligua, from his gallivanting across the Bay of Baiae, ensuring his horse, Incitatus, became a consul, the nightly trips to the Subaru, to his incestuous love for Drusilla (whose death removes the only person he ever really loved and trusted) at the same time seeing it through the inextricably entwined narrator whose own life it shaped by the understandable madness - his loss of his wife, Caesonia the prime example - that assails Caligula. Midway Agrippana almost apologies for his behaviour when she says: "Gaius is the most cursed of all. He destroys everything he touches. It's his madness. It can't last." (p169)
By the end Caligula's brief tenure is over, ended at the point of a praetorian sword, Claudius is emperor and our narrator is in exile. This is Massie's Apologia for Caligula, an attempt to redress the Suetonian image of the man who should never have been king which has been further confounded by films such as `Caligula' and you come away with a slightly sour taste of a twenty first century apology for everything. Namely, it was is upbringing that was reponsible for the man he became. All sense of justice and culpability is removed and familial problems are the root cause. There is an acceptance that personal responsibility is not an option and that he was a product of the system. Somehow, it doesn't quite hold water. Massie's style is as languid as ever and he protrays a world of decadence and fantasy that doesn't bring ancient Rome to life but certainly acts as an apology for the image that history has created of Caligula.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To be honest I enjoy reading historical fiction, and really wanted to read about the 'acts' reportedly committed by Caligula during his time as Emperor. So when I found this book for a quid in the local Oxfam shop I was well happy.
Unfortunately if it is the 'acts' you are wanting read about then this is not the book for you, as this book takes the stand that most 'acts' were mere fiction.
The book is written from the perspective of a friend of Caligula, dictating to a scribe. The first half of the book seems to be more about the history of the writer than Caligula.
What was odd to me was that the the middle of the book seems to be missing. The first half is about Caligula as a small boy, and then suddenly everyone seems to be wanting to kill him as an adult.
This is not a long book - about just over 200 pages. Add the missing middle to make 300 add it would have been a far better read !!
Unfortunately if it is the 'acts' you are wanting read about then this is not the book for you, as this book takes the stand that most 'acts' were mere fiction.
The book is written from the perspective of a friend of Caligula, dictating to a scribe. The first half of the book seems to be more about the history of the writer than Caligula.
What was odd to me was that the the middle of the book seems to be missing. The first half is about Caligula as a small boy, and then suddenly everyone seems to be wanting to kill him as an adult.
This is not a long book - about just over 200 pages. Add the missing middle to make 300 add it would have been a far better read !!
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