How to Be a Bad Emperor

An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers Series)

By: Suetonius, Josiah Osgood - editor and translator, Josiah Osgood - introduction

Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan

If recent history has taught us anything, it's that sometimes the best guide to leadership is the negative example. But that insight is hardly new. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Suetonius wrote Lives of the Caesars, perhaps the greatest negative leadership book of all time. He was ideally suited to write about terrible political leaders; after all, he was also the author of Famous Prostitutes and Words of Insult, both sadly lost. In How to Be a Bad Emperor, Josiah Osgood provides crisp new translations of Suetonius's briskly paced, darkly comic biographies of the Roman emperors Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero. Entertaining and shocking, the stories of these ancient anti-role models show how power inflames leaders' worst tendencies, causing almost incalculable damage.

How to Be a Bad Emperor is both a gleeful romp through some of the nastiest bits of Roman history and a perceptive account of leadership gone monstrously awry. We meet Caesar, using his aunt's funeral to brag about his descent from gods and kings - and hiding his bald head with a comb-over and a laurel crown; Tiberius, neglecting public affairs in favor of wine, perverse sex, tortures, and executions; the insomniac sadist Caligula, flaunting his skill at cruel put-downs; and the matricidal Nero, indulging his mania for public performance.

©2020 Princeton University Press (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A Witty Enjoyable Listen

Great fun learning more about the decadence and personal habits of Caesars. The narrator doesn’t appear to be AI, also pronounces difficult words with ease, making the experience very good. Well written, quick, perfect for a long flight or whatever.

Sleepy joe must have listened to this

Good drive into what happens when evil people have power
joe & hunter took this to heart

Not worth listening to

I have followed many stories of ancient Rome. The depravities and viciousness of the emperors is always amazing. Unfortunately, this telling of those events is terrible. It is poorly written, disjointed, and uninterested. I couldn’t get through it all the way. Tried several times. Listen to anything else than this.