This reader contains selections from Tacitus, Suetonius and Seneca on the first five Roman emperors. They present a dark world of murder, mayhem, debauchery and palace intrigue: Augustus with his firm moral policies and secret adulterous affairs; the sour and depraved Tiberius; the extravagance and madness of Caligula; the slobbering and ineffective Claudius; and Nero with his absurd artistic pretensions. Exciting, horrific and moving, the selections are also valuable for studying style and rhetoric, human nature and the roles of women, imperialism and corruption. The book is aimed at students moving on to genuine, unsimplified Latin prose after completing an introductory Latin course. It contains a useful introduction, detailed notes providing a lot of help with grammar, expression and translation, a full vocabulary, and an appreciation offering historical comment for context and analysis and literary criticism to make the passages come alive as literature and enhance students' perception and enjoyment.

'… students and instructors who choose this book as a post-beginners text will find much to engage with. It is not easy to learn Latin as an adult and there is no way to make it easy, but the more interesting and helpful we can make it the better, and this volume certainly does that.' Classics Ireland

Garrett G. Fagan is Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and History, The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of Bathing in the Roman World (1999) and has also written a wide range of articles on the Roman world and pseudoarchaeology. Paul Murgatroyd is Professor of Classics at McMaster University. His publications include The Amatory Elegies of Johannes Secundus (2000) and Mythical and Legendary Narrative In Ovid's Fasti (forthcoming), as well as commentaries on Tibullus and a selection from Ovid's Ars Amatoria suitable for undergraduates. He is also a published Latin poet with numerous translations into and free compositions in Latin verse.