How to Be a Bad Emperor - An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders (Hardcover)

What would Caligula do? What the worst Roman emperors can teach us about how not to lead If recent history has taught us anything, it's that sometimes the best guide to leadership is the negative example. But that insight is hardly new. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Suetonius wrote Lives of the Caesars, perhaps the greatest negative leadership book of all time. He was ideally suited to write about terrible political leaders; after all, he was also the author of Famous Prostitutes and Words of Insult, both sadly lost. In How to Be a Bad Emperor, Josiah Osgood provides crisp new translations of Suetonius's briskly paced, darkly comic biographies of the Roman emperors Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero. Entertaining and shocking, the stories of these ancient anti-role models show how power inflames leaders' worst tendencies, causing almost incalculable damage. Complete with an introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Be a Bad Emperor is both a gleeful romp through some of the nastiest bits of Roman history and a perceptive account of leadership gone monstrously awry. We meet Caesar, using his aunt's funeral to brag about his descent from gods and kings-and hiding his bald head with a comb-over and a laurel crown; Tiberius, neglecting public affairs in favor of wine, perverse sex, tortures, and executions; the insomniac sadist Caligula, flaunting his skill at cruel put-downs; and the matricide Nero, indulging his mania for public performance. In a world bristling with strongmen eager to cast themselves as the Caesars of our day, How to Be a Bad Emperor is a delightfully enlightening guide to the dangers of power without character.

General

Imprint:	Princeton University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers
Release date:	February 2020
First published:	2020
Authors:	Suetonius
Editors:	Josiah Osgood
Dimensions:	178 x 124 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Trade binding
Pages:	312
ISBN-13:	978-0-691-19399-1
Categories:	Books > Health, Home & Family > Self-help & practical interests > General Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes > Political leaders & leadership Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > General Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > General Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General
LSN:	0-691-19399-1
Barcode:	9780691193991

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