For a long time being a classicist didn’t exactly make you a hit at
a party. Then along came Donald Trump and suddenly everybody wants
to know: Which Roman emperor is he most like? In this
inaugural episode of Instant Classics, Mary Beard and Charlotte
Higgins confront the question they are asked the most. And, as ever
when Mary Beard is involved, the answer isn’t always as simple as
you might think. Mary and Charlotte explain how most of what
we know about the emperors is unreliable. We do get some
extraordinary glimpses behind the palace walls (Suetonius, the
biographer of the first “12 Caesars” was a real insider – having
worked as palace archivist and librarian). But almost all our
accounts of them come from after their reign and are part of
“posthumous reputation making”. Often, the way to keep bloke in
power pleased was to trash his predecessors. Did Caligula really
have all his soldiers pick up every shell on a beach or plan to
make his favourite horse a consul? These stories may be
fanciful, but they are hugely important nevertheless and were
repeated for generations. They are some of the best evidence for
Romans thought of their emperors, about their fears of imperial
power and how it falls. So one to one, real life comparisons
are always misleading (insists Mary!). But the wider patterns of
political power can be similar then and now. Donald Trump plays
many of the tunes that you find in the emperors’ playbook:
capriciousness as a political tactic (they’re always changing their
mind); Julius Caesar was one who made a point of speaking directly
to the people to bypass political institutions (Trump does it
through social media); wanton cruelty mixed with sudden acts of
generosity. Charlotte doesn’t let Mary off the hook. Yes,
it’s hard to draw direct comparisons, but - come on Mary! - which
emperor is Trump most like? Answers are given!
@instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for
X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Mary and Charlotte’s
recommended reads: Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars. Written in the
second century CE. There’s a new translation by Tom Holland, but
plenty of others are available. It was written to be read from
start to finish, but new readers might choose to start with the
lives of Caligula, Nero or Domitian. The Lives of the Later Caesars
(available in Penguin translation: its Latin title is the rather
more opaque Historia Augusta). Much less well known, this is a
series of ancient biographies of emperors after Hadrian that make
Suetonius look very “proper”, with lurid anecdotes that no one has
ever thought were true. If you want a good start, go to the life of
Elagabalus (also called Heliogabalus). For those wanting to explore
Elagabalus, there’s an awful lot of modern gossip-mongering
masquerading as history. For a more reliable start, try Martijn
Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus (this is great on how he was
represented in later art and culture), or Harry Sidebottom, The Mad
Emperor. Advert alert: Mary discusses the stories told about Roman
emperors, and how we can understand them in her book, Emperor of
Rome. Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty
Claypole Executive Producer: Jo Meek Senior Producer:
Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey
Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
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