Palatine

An Alternative History of the Caesars

Peter Stothard

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English

Weidenfeld & Nicolson
11 April 2023

History; Ancient history: to c 500 CE

'Lets us see how power really worked, in public and private ... Stothard tells this story superbly'

Dominic Sandbrook, SUNDAY TIMES

14 CE: The first Roman emperor is dead. A second is about to succeed. The Forum of Rome, once fought over so fiercely, has become hardly more than a museum. The house of all power is up above on the Palatine Hill, about to become

the birthplace of Western bureaucracy, a warren of banqueting and bedrooms, a treacherous household where it takes special talents to survive.

This is a Roman history with a cast of new men and newly dominant women, those reviled too often in the past as flatterers and gluttons, uppity slaves and former slaves, lawyers-for-hire, chancer arrivistes and unhinged party animals. Palatine

uncovers the lives of the Vitellii, perhaps Rome's least admired imperial clan, of Publius, an old-fashioned soldier snared in the politics of the new age, of Lucius, an exceptionally skilled and sycophantic courtier, and of Aulus a genial sluggard whose prowess

at the table carries him all the way to the throne before collapsing his family's reputation for ever. Few now remember them. Yet in their creeping ascent to the very summit of the imperial hierarchy lie neglected truths about a lasting legacy of Rome.

By: Peter Stothard
Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 400g
ISBN: 9781474621007
ISBN 10: 1474621007
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 11 April 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Peter Stothard is an author, journalist and critic. He is a former editor of The Times and of The Times Literary Supplement. His books include ALEXANDRIA, THE LAST NIGHTS OF CLEOPATRA, ON THE SPARTACUS ROAD and THE LAST ASSASSIN. He lives in Cambridge.

Reviews for Palatine: An Alternative History of the Caesars

Profound scholarship written with the verve and expertise of an accomplished novelist. On every page lapidary phrases evoke the reality of life in the ancient world . . . Wonderful, evocative stuff! -- Harry Sidebottom * Daily Telegraph *