Caligula

just a bunch of people mistreating women and killing everybody they see in sight

I do know many forms of torture now because of this book so my knowledge has expanded and I will be a tiny tiny tiny bit harder to beat in trivial pursuit.

would be a 1 star but the writing was splendid

An excerpt, or collection of excerpts (I couldn't tell if they were consecutive or not) from Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars or The Twelve Caesars.

On the whole I was a bit disappointed with this. I am sure that when I was at school we read about the debauchery of Caligula in Classics class, and it was all booze and orgies, murders and incest. I was looking forward to a highlights package condensed into 60 pages.

What was delivered was more of a potted history - his family background, yes - a whole lot of murders, a bit of sister-shagging (only the youngest one), and some more murders, but it wasn't particularly engaging. I think they really missed a trick, and could have done a lot better with selecting the excerpts, and/or some heavy editing.

Still 3 stars of five, but could have been so much more.

The best part was quoted on the title page: Because of his baldness and hairiness, he announced that it was a capital offence for anyone either to look down on him as he passed or to mention goats in any context. ... Goats?