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Jan 1, 1941 — —· 85 yrs

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Barrett, Anthony

Also known as: Barrett, Anthony, 1941-, Barrett, Anthony A., 1941-....

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Anthony Arthur Barrett (born July 30, 1941) is a British-Canadian Classical scholar and the author of several books on Roman antiquity. -Wikipedia

The expulsion of the last hated king from Rome, an event dated traditionally to 510 BC, ushered in a republican form of government that was to endure for more than four centuries and which was regarded by later Romans, especially those from the elite levels of society, with pride and an often naive nostalgia.

— from Livia

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Agrippina

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Agrippina the Younger attained a level of power in first-century Rome unprecedented for a woman. According to ancient sources, she achieved her success by plotting against her brother, the emperor Caligula, murdering her husband, the emperor Claudius, and controlling her son, the emperor Nero, by sleeping with him. Modern scholars tend to accept this verdict. But in his dynamic biography - the first on Agrippina in English - Anthony Barrett paints a startling new picture of this influential woman. Drawing on the latest archaeological, numismatic, and historical evidence, Barrett argues that Agrippina has been misjudged. Although she was ambitious, says Barrett, she made her way through ability and determination rather than by sexual allure, and her political contributions to her time seem to have been positive. After Agrippina's marriage to Claudius there was a marked decline in the number of judicial executions and there was close cooperation between the Senate and the emperor; the settlement of Cologne, founded under her aegis, was a model of social harmony; and the first five years of Nero's reign, while she was still alive, were the most enlightened of his rule. According to Barrett, Agrippina's one real failing was her relationship with her son, the monster of her own making who had her murdered in horrific and violent circumstances. Agrippina's impact was so lasting, however, that for some 150 years after her death no woman in the imperial family dared assume an assertive political role.

#1

Livia

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"Livia (58 B.C. - A.D. 29) - wife of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, and mother of the second, Tiberius - wielded power at the center of Roman politics for most of her long life. Livia has been portrayed as a cunning and sinister schemer who eliminated her opponents, both within her own family and outside of it. In this biography (the first in English devoted to her), Livia emerges as a much more complex individual - a woman who skillfully won the support and even affection of her contemporaries, and who was widely revered after her death." "Barrett here examines Livia's life and her role in Roman politics. He recounts her marriage to Augustus at the age of nineteen; her essential contributions to Augustus' initially tenuous position as ruler; her unprecedented authority during his reign; and her conflicts with Tiberius, who was unwilling to concede to his mother the kind of authority that Augustus had intended for her. Livia's remarkable life spanned two reigns that established the pattern of government for the Roman empire over the next four centuries."--BOOK JACKET.

#3

Caligula

1989

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"Was the Roman emperor Caligula really the depraved despot of popular legend? In this book-the first major reassessment of Caligula`s life and career in over fifty years-Anthony A. Barrett draws on archaeological, numismatic, and literary evidence to evaluate this infamous figure in the context of the system that gave him absolute power." --Publisher description.

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