Nero

June 1, 2022

Cofounder of the Centre for Army Leadership, British Army, at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Clark weaves together the lives and careers of three consequential Commanders in World War II: U.S. general George Patton, British field marshal Bernard Montgomery, and German field marshal Erwin Rommel. In The Lion House, Orwell Prize--winning historian/journalist de Bellaigue chronicles the rule of Suleyman the Magnificent, the powerful 16th-century sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from the perspectives of those closest to him, e.g., an enslaved Greek turned Grand Vizier and a Russian consort turned beloved wife (15,000-copy first printing). From No. 1 New York Times best-selling Drury and Clavin (e.g., Blood and Treasure), The Last Hill re-creates the efforts of "Rudder's Rangers"--an elite U.S. Army battalion--to take and hold Hill 400 in Germany (200,000-copy first printing). Joined by freelance investigative journalist Ashworth, popular historian Everitt (Cicero, The Rise of Rome) rethinks Nero, the magnet-for-trouble populist ruler who proved to be the last of the Caesars. In The Rebel and the Kingdom, Pulitzer Prize finalist Hope (Blood and Oil) tracks the activism of Adrian Hong, who abandoned his Yale studies in the early 2000s to help usher North Korean asylum seekers to safety and has become increasingly involved in efforts to track and oppose North Korea's government, culminating in an alleged raid on Madrid's North Korean Embassy in 2019. Author of the multi-best-booked, New York Times best-selling The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, Wilkinson commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by chronicling 100 key artifacts, including the silver-shiny Tutankhamun's Trumpet.

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September 12, 2022
Historian Everitt (Alexander the Great) and journalist Ashworth deliver a nuanced biography of Roman emperor Nero, who ruled from 54 to 68 BCE. Spotlighting the “contradiction” that Nero was loved by the Roman people but despised by the elite, the authors explain that the nature of the Roman Principate, which had no clear principle of succession, helped foster Nero’s suspicions about members of his court. Everitt and Ashworth also detail how Nero’s mother, Agrippina, helped put her son on the throne, but sought to control his private life and policy decisions. Even after Nero murdered her, Agrippina “linger as a presence throughout her son’s restless, guilt-ridden life.” Though Nero’s advisers, especially Burrus and Seneca, helped him keep the Roman empire “well managed,” he eventually tired of their control, abandoned all pretense of shared governance with the Senate, and embraced autocracy. The authors also explain how Nero’s love of Greek culture and his public performances as a charioteer and singer crossed a line with Roman elite, solidifying their belief that he wasn’t fit to rule. Though Everitt and Ashworth don’t break much new ground, they evoke the period with wit and precision. Ancient history buffs will be pleased.

October 15, 2022
A new biography of the notorious emperor who, though hardly a saint, "was a more effective ruler than he has been given credit for." Everitt, prolific British historian of the ancient world, and journalist Ashworth write that few Romans regretted the collapse of the republic, a ramshackle system that dissolved in civil war. Almost everyone, the authors included, agrees that the winner, Octavian, later Augustus, began the empire on a high note. His rule, from 31 B.C.E. to 14 C.E., was absolute but largely peaceful and not terribly corrupt. His successors did not live up to his standards, and his bloodline ended with the widely reviled Nero and another civil war. The authors admit that none of the half-dozen Roman historians on whom modern scholars rely were contemporaries, and most portray Nero as an incompetent despot with an "exotic" sex life. However, Everitt and Ashworth add that not all of this is false and that he never wanted to be emperor. "Given the choice," they write, "he would much rather have been a poet and professional musician." He became emperor because of his fiercely ambitious mother, Agrippina, wife of his predecessor, Claudius, who also (according to contemporaries) poisoned her husband. Aside from the usual debauchery, Nero seems to have begun as a tolerable ruler, cultivating the Senate and army and allowing administrators to run the empire. Five years into his reign, he murdered Agrippina, a threat to his growing power. This seemed to mark the beginning of his decline, after which his behavior became more erratic, cruel, and extravagant. A revolt in the provinces spread to Rome, from which Nero fled and later committed suicide. The authors present a portrait that is decidedly less skeptical of the ancient historians than many other similar histories, and it makes for page-turning, informative reading for students of the era. A nice addition to the literature about ancient Rome.

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