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Palatine, the most important of the Seven Hills of Rome, was the heartbeat of Roman imperial power. This book provides a unique and vivid narrative of Rome's first dynasty, as seen through the eyes of one family, the Vitelli, who expertly maneuvered through the Palatine until their luck ran out.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Characters
- PART ONE
- 1: In the palace dog-house
- 2: Mr Glutton and Mr Fool
- 3: Succession
- 4: Care for what we eat
- 5: A wolf by its ears
- 6: Publius among the fishes
- 7: Between the Emperor and his heir
- 8: Flattery and fear
- 9: Words for a palace
- PART TWO
- 10: The fox and the crow
- 11: Who killed the prince?
- 12: The only verdict that mattered
- 13: Tiberius, Tiber and Tibur
- 14: Hercules the herdsman
- 15: Care for cucumbers
- 16: Vitellia's night out
- 17: Pen and knives
- 18: The way of the guard captain
- 19: Water on dust
- 20: Profits from propinquity
- 21: Death of the damned
- 22: Lucius Vitellius and the son of God
- 23: Goat worship
- 24: Ill will for the twin
- 25: Man talks to a Moon
- 26: Good water, golden meat
- 27: Torture of an actress
- 28: Garden ornaments
- 29: Lucius rules the world
- 30: Ashes of a swallow
- 31: Flattery's textbook
- 32: A bedroom slipper
- 33: Of unshakable loyalty to his emperor
- 34: God-given mushrooms
- 35: Aulus the educator
- 36: Oedipus and actors
- 37: Dish of Minerva
- 38: Blackened tables
- 39: Food and fire
- 40: New lamps for old
- PART THREE
- 41: Mr Stingy
- 42: A good job for a glutton
- 43: Fill me up!
- 44: A hard man to flatter
- 45: Brother behind the lines
- 46: Wine for the battlefield
- 47: Shield of Minerva
- 48: Emperor Vitellius
- 49: No time for a party
- 50: A drink to defeat
- 51: In Augustus's temple
- 52: Out of the dog house
- 53: New clothes for old
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
About the author
Peter Stothard is an author, journalist, and critic. He is a former editor of The Times [of London] and of The Times Literary Supplement. His previous books include The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar, Alexandria: The Last Nights of Cleopatra, and On the Spartacus Road: A Spectacular Journey through Ancient Italy.
Summary
Palatine, the most important of the Seven Hills of Rome, was the heartbeat of Roman imperial power. This book provides a unique and vivid narrative of Rome's first dynasty, as seen through the eyes of one family, the Vitelli, who expertly maneuvered through the Palatine until their luck ran out.
Additional text
Stothard tells a refreshingly different story almost entirely: the biography of the loutish Vitellii clan... [A] smart, visionary book... No reader of Roman history should miss it, both for the sheer thrill of the reading experience and for the challenges such an approach consistently poses to the wary.
