Kaiser

A solid overview, sadly stained by modernity.

Revisado: 08-22-20

Let's start off with the good.

This biography of Caligula is fairly well written, a very nice overview of his life and the principal figures around him. Starting with his birth and ending a little past his assassination with a brief overview of his successor Claudius's reign. the author does a very good job of not only exploring potential avenues of justifications for some of Caligula's actions while not shying away from some of the more atrocious things he had done during his reign. The author also tactfully explores some of the potential thought processes around the sycophants and court officials that surrounded him and learned how to survive while always making it clear that these are just possibilities and not known fact. I also enjoyed the author's attempted medical diagnosis of Caligula potential madness, thought that was a fun little chapter.

The narrator does a fantastic job of reading this book. While some minor mispronunciation of names and places does occur it's very minor and does not take you out of the story at all. As someone whose library is filled with volumes on Ancient Rome and many other cultures with vastly different languages and vernaculars, this narrator has done better than most.

The Cons

The only con I can give the main substance of the volume ( though I'm not even sure it should be counted against the book as this may have been the author's intent) but it's definitely not what I would call a full biography. One of the great things about the late Republic early Imperial period of Rome is that we have so many volumes and surviving accounts of the events that took place. And while this book does a good job of covering those events it doesn't go into as great of detail as some other volumes have. I would rate this book for somebody who knows a bit about early Imperial Rome and wants to start dipping their toes into the deeper history of the era or just someone who is interested in Caligula personally without being bugged down by all the gritty minutia of the time.

The Ending Chapter

Here is where the bulk of the bad reviews for this book come from and honestly I can see why. As a bit of disclaimer as it never hurts to state your intentions in these modern times. I have no stake in the modern politics of America at all. I personally find modern politics to be a sad insult to the collective intelligence of not only America but the world in general. Now with that being said, the last chapter of this book truly drags it down in every possible way. This book's last chapter attempts to compare the Emperor Caligula who has been dead nearly two thousand years and compare him with the current American President Donald Trump. Not only are these comparisons superficial at best, quite a few of them stretch into what I would personally consider absurdity. ( there was a small section dedicated over to how Trump shakes other world leaders hands compared to Caligula) While comparing leaders both past and present can be interesting, thought-provoking and even quite insightful this at least to me seems more like grandstanding or the author attempting to force a personal view on to the the reader. The last chapter of this book is truly a jarring shift from what was otherwise a solid overview of Caligula.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

An in-depth look at an often marginalized force

Revisado: 03-25-20

A great in-deep dive into the forces of the Habsburg Empire (later later the Austrian Empire, later the Austro-Hungarian empire) that sheds light on an army with a rich and storied history that is often simply used as a backdrop in most western histories as merely a means to advance the story of other nations. More often than not the armies of the Habsburgs are simply referenced in the histories as losing constantly to better opponents such as Napoleon, Frederick, and the armies of World War I, but if this is true then how did the Empire manage to stay together for as long as it did?

This book not only does a great job of showing that there's more to the armies of the Habsburg's then losing battles and backwards thinking. It is in fact an army at the head of many advancements in military technology and Innovative tactics. And is an force that has been at the forefront of many of the battles military historians still study today. The book also does a great job of showing that history is just as much of a force driven by individual personalities as it is driven by centrifugal forces around it.

As a word of caution though this book is not for the faint of heart. As this book is an analysis of the Armed Forces of the Habsburg's it will not go unduly out of its way to explain the political or economic history surrounding these events nor to the other nations it is involved with. Highly recommend knowing the history around this subject so you can have a full experience with this book.

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