RaveThe Washington PostIt is clear that Beard...is herself deeply intrigued by the Roman emperor ... Beard treads this ground carefully, drawing on a rich plethora of literary and material evidence from both the center and the edges of the Roman world ... Beard’s writing is, as always, deeply engaging and informed by what seems to be an encyclopedic knowledge of the ancient world. Due to the sheer amount of evidence from which she draws, and the vast ground she covers, she inevitably has to condense her sources ... A book with as ambitious a scope as this one cannot, of course scrutinize all sources equally. And Beard offers ample resources, labeled \'Further Reading,\' for curious readers who want to discover more for themselves. What ultimately emerges in these rigorously researched pages is an account that gives life to an often shadowy yet captivating figure.
