EMPEROR OF ROME: Ruling the Ancient Roman World
by Mary Beard
(Profile Books, $75)
“Why, for the love of the gods, did the Roman Senate almost always deify him after death even if he’d been a crook, a killer or a madman?
Everyone dies, even emperors of Rome. And as Augustus’s health worsened in the summer of 14CE, the first emperor of Rome knew his time had come and he should make ready to join the gods on Mt Olympus.
The ancient writer Suetonius records that, after relaxing for a few
