Caligula: Divine Carnage: Atrocities of the Roman Emperors

by Stephen Barber and Jeremy Reed

Book Overview

Award-winning writers Stephen Barber and Jeremy Reed document in full the atrocities of Caligula and also the other mad Emperors, particularly the deranged Commodus and Heliogabalus, the teenage... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1840680490
• ISBN13: 9781840680492
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Creation Books
• Length: 159 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Like watching a Hollywood movie

This is worth reading for entertainment. It is not boring by any stretch and you may find that you finish this book far sooner than you would have thought. The authors do not offer any real proof of any claim within. The stories of the excessive emperors are too fantastical to be true. The book has all the charm of a Hollywood movie. It is exciting, grotesque, shocking, and sinfully enjoyable. I did not purchase this book for its historical accuracy. That being said, it is as enjoyable as watching a gladiator movie.

An absolutely riviting depiction of evil ever written.

Now this is a book that will keep you up at night. Torture? The Romans spent all of their leasure time thinking about how to improve it. Let me tell you, you do not want to of crossed any of the people depicted here. Words cannot describe the content in this book. But it is worth while to get and read. Here is but one of the more noteworthy passages: "...christians were exposed to the mauling of wild beasts of every description, so that the skin and meat was gradually eaten or clawed away from their bones as they clung to the hideous vestiges of life. Many of these beasts were specially trained to sexually violate and sodomie their prey before dismemberment; female prisoners doused in civet grease were often raped half to death by feral dogs or buggered by baboons beneath the spectator's gae before being duly devoured..." I don't think that anything that I can say can do this book justice. It is a very powerful and disturbing book.

Magnificent Fiction

This book is a hoot. It contains 155 pages of text and about 2 pages of history. The rest is confined to describing fictitious scenes of physically impossible acts of depravity and violence, written in the most over-the-top and florid language you could ever hope to find. I'm sure the authors must have had a good chuckle when writing it, trying to think up even more outrageous scenarios as the book progressed. Buy it if you will, but remember..... its pure fiction.

Not your average Roman history book!

While not exactly a scholarly book on history in the sense of having footnotes and a bibliography (a shame really, I would love to have seen some of the sources for this book!), this is certainly the most entertaining history book I have read in quite some time! I admit, I have been looking for a book for a long time that goes past the usual dry descriptions of the atrocities of the mad emperors. I cannot say I was disappointed. While not a book for the squeamish or the easily offended, I was hooked from the first pages. I do find the facts believable, even if they are quite outrageous. The descriptions of sex and violence do make you wonder how these particular emperors (Caligula, Commodus, Heliogabalis) actually had any time to run the empire. The lurid descriptions of the orgies of Caligula are enough to make the hardiest person feel a little embarrased. The descriptions of the gladiatorial arena are interesting, even though I didn't realize quite so much of the games revolved around sexual activities of EVERYONE, including the emperor. The language throughout the book would certainly be described as, well, filthy, something I didn't expect to find in a history book. This is not a book that parents would want minors reading. The main flaw with that is the lack of warnings anywhere on the book that indicate such content. But in light of that, I don't honestly see too many teenagers running out to buy history books without being forced. That may be a bland generalization, but it hasn't been that long since I've been in high school to remember what it was like! Then again, if they had been teaching books like this one, I might have paid more attention! Very sensationalized, very entertaining. GRAPHIC descriptions of sex (incl. incest and homosexuality), death, and torture (the emperors had excellent imaginations). Probably the filthiest history book I have ever read, and not for lack of trying, believe me!