Imperial insiders
This story of Rome under the Julio-Claudian emperors and their immediate successors in the early decades AD features a colourful cast of characters. They’re drawn variously from ancient Italian farce (the Glutton and the Toady being the most prominent), from Aesop’s fables adapted and Romanised by Phaedrus, and from recipes attributed to Apicius – all employed to comment on the nature of power in the imperial court.
This is not exclusively, or even primarily, the story of the Caesars. Rather, Stothard immerses us in a world built to facilitate and pander to those ‘big’ men, focusing on the bureaucratic machinery on the Palatine Hill, and the rise and fall of an obscure Italian family that provided Rome with its shortlived eighth emperor, Aulus Vitellius. Stothard ably handles the dense network of familial relations; in the rare moments these become confusing and confused (Claudius is, at one point, incorrectly described as Tiberius’s uncle), the family tree and cast list help clarify matters.
The themes of gluttony and flattery – necessary, it would seem, for survival in the imperial court – are prominent throughout this vivid and engaging drama. Stothard keeps his short chapters packed with information and depth. There is much to appreciate about Rome’s wider cultural and social structures informing the story of life, death, theatre and consumption of all kinds at the palace. That imperial home on the Palatine Hill forms the main stage on which an ever-growing roster of characters – from slaves and ex-slaves to kings and courtiers – shape the narrative.
Stothard deftly offers us a tempting dish about the history of Rome’s early principate – a different kind from that traditionally served, and one that readers will doubtless relish.