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Caillan Davenport
Behind Caesar’s Back: Rumor, Gossip, and the Making of the Roman Emperors, by Caillan Davenport
Modern-day understanding of the Roman world was frequently shaped by public perception and talk of the emperors played a role in influencing that history.
Caillan Davenport’s Behind Caesar’s Back is, for me, a rare book, in that it covers a subject I have not come across before and therefore opened up all sorts of new research ideas for me. The book investigates examples of gossip and rumour in Rome, from the end of the...
How Did the Romans Respond to the Deaths of their Emperors?
Rumour in the Roman world tended to flourish when it came to the the fate of emperors, threatening imperial stability and exposing public anxiety.
‘Rumour is always more terrifying when it concerns the deaths of the powerful’, wrote the Roman senator and historian Cornelius Tacitus in the early 2nd century CE. His statement can be equally applied to monarchs and potentates, both dynastic and elected, who, by...