
Praetorian
The Rise and Fall of Rome's Imperial Bodyguard
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Narrated by:
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Malk Williams
About this listen
A riveting account of ancient Rome's imperial bodyguard, the select band of soldiers who wielded the power to make - or destroy - the emperors they served.
Founded by Augustus around 27 BC, the elite Praetorian Guard was tasked with the protection of the emperor and his family. As the centuries unfolded, however, Praetorian soldiers served not only as protectors and enforcers but also as powerful political players. Fiercely loyal to some emperors, they vied with others and ruthlessly toppled those who displeased them, including Caligula, Nero, Pertinax, and many more. Guy de la Bédoyère provides a compelling first full narrative history of the Praetorians, whose dangerous ambitions ceased only when Constantine permanently disbanded them.
De la Bédoyère introduces Praetorians of all echelons, from prefects and messengers to artillery experts and executioners. He explores the delicate position of emperors for whom prestige and guile were the only defenses against bodyguards hungry for power. Folding fascinating details into a broad assessment of the Praetorian era, the author sheds new light on the wielding of power in the greatest of the ancient world's empires.
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Story
The Roman empire shaped the culture of the Western world against which all other great powers are compared. Stretching from the north of Britain to the Sahara, and from the Atlantic coast to the Euphrates, it imposed peace and prosperity on an unprecedented scale. However, the exception lay in the east, where the Parthian and then Persian empires ruled over great cities and the trade routes to mysterious lands beyond. This was the place Alexander the Great had swept through, creating a dream of glory and conquest which tantalized Greeks and Romans alike.
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Good Goldsworthy, Not greatest
- By Timothy Hopper on 07-27-23
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The Fall of Rome
- And the End of Civilization
- By: Bryan Ward-Perkins
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Fall of Rome, eminent historian Bryan Ward-Perkins argues that the "peaceful" theory of Rome's "transformation" is badly in error. Indeed, he sees the fall of Rome as a time of horror and dislocation that destroyed a great civilization, throwing the inhabitants of the West back to a standard of living typical of prehistoric times. Attacking contemporary theories with relish and making use of modern archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans.
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best book ever on Fall of Rome
- By james m. on 01-30-22
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Caesar's Civil War
- 49–44 BC
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were two of the greatest generals Rome had ever produced. Together they had brought vast stretches of territory under Roman dominion. In 49 BC they turned against each other and plunged Rome into civil war. In this audiobook, Adrian Goldsworthy relates the gripping story of this desperate power struggle. Drawing on original accounts of the war, he examines how legion was pitched against legion in a vicious battle for political domination of the vast Roman world.
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Great Overview
- By Cody Rankin on 01-19-23
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The Restoration of Rome
- Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders
- By: Peter Heather
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In AD 476, the last of Rome's emperors, known as "Augustulus", was deposed by a barbarian general, the son of one of Attila the Hun's henchmen. With the imperial vestments dispatched to Constantinople, the curtain fell on the Roman empire in Western Europe, its territories divided among successor kingdoms constructed around barbarian military manpower. But, if the Roman Empire was dead, Romans across much of the old empire still lived, holding on to their lands, their values, and their institutions.
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Byzantine Empire Stands Tall!
- By Placeholder on 05-22-14
By: Peter Heather
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The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248-260
- When the Gods Abandoned Rome
- By: Paul N. Pearson
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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This book is a narrative history of a dozen years of turmoil that begins with Rome's millennium celebrations of 248 CE and ends with the capture of the emperor Valerian by the Persians in 260. It was a period of almost unremitting disaster for Rome, involving a series of civil wars, several major invasions by Goths and Persians, economic crisis, and an empire-wide pandemic, the 'plague of Cyprian'.
By: Paul N. Pearson
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The Rise of Rome
- The Making of the World's Greatest Empire
- By: Anthony Everitt
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world's preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome's rise to glory into an erudite book filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome's shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire.
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Rome from the fall of Troy through Julius Caesar
- By Mike From Mesa on 12-11-12
By: Anthony Everitt
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Pax
- War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory
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Great book!
- By Mic on 09-27-23
By: Tom Holland
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The Ancient Celts, Second Edition
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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For 2,500 years, the Celts have continued to fascinate those who have come into contact with them, yet their origins have remained a mystery and even today are the subject of heated debate among historians and archaeologists. Barry Cunliffe's classic study of the ancient Celtic world was first published in 1997. Since then, huge advances have taken place in our knowledge: new finds, new ways of using DNA records to understand Celtic origins, new ideas about the proto-urban nature of early chieftains' strongholds. All these developments are part of this fully updated edition.
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Missing the foundation and migration from the steppe and the Tuatha Dé Dannan
- By cpdb on 03-15-20
By: Barry Cunliffe
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Greece Against Rome
- The Fall of the Hellenistic Kingdoms 250-31 BC
- By: Philip Matyszak
- Narrated by: Gareth Richards
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Towards the middle of the third century BC, the Hellenistic kingdoms were near their peak. In terms of population, economy, and military power, each was vastly superior to Rome, not to mention in fields such as medicine, architecture, science, philosophy, and literature. But over the next two and a half centuries, Rome would eventually conquer these kingdoms while adopting so much of Hellenistic culture that the resultant hybrid is known as "Graeco-Roman." In Greece Against Rome, Philip Matyszak relates this epic tale from the Hellenistic perspective.
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Really enjoyed the book and snark
- By Chris Smith on 05-27-23
By: Philip Matyszak
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Caesar
- Life of a Colossus
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Julius Caesar's life, Adrian Goldsworthy covers not only the great Roman emperor's accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar's character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate some 2,000 years later.
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Caesar and his times
- By Mike From Mesa on 08-31-15
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The Thirty Years War
- Europe's Tragedy
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 33 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
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Less caffeine, narrator
- By Jeff Joyner on 02-12-24
By: Peter H. Wilson
To sum up the story in total, when the empire's borders were secure, the praetorian guard held the most power, being a military force stationed within the city walls who had their own centralized leadership and fortified base of operations. When the borders came under threat however, and the limitations of a single ruler exposed the need for not only a warrior emperor constantly traveling but a fellow emperor based outside of rome, the praetorians lost their key leverage--proximity. They could no longer threaten the emperor's life. Because of their lack of power and potential for being swayed, they were eventually disbanded by Constantine.
Is this a story worth telling? Of course. Should it take so many words? Of course not.
Like many historical authors, Bedoyere uses excessive and long-winded phrasing--"In the extreme" rather than extremely, "not dumb" instead of smart, and "in the event," a phrase which has no recognizable impact on any sentence I've ever read other than to make the sentence three words longer. This makes the narrative a little hard to follow, but isn't as bad as his biggest failing: order of events.
Until now I'd never read a book where the author will spend an hour telling you about a thirty-year civil war between characters whose names are only slightly different, and then at the end start describing the behaviors of an unmentioned character back toward the beginning of said war. Bodeyere has become the first. Enjoy listening to, for a made up example, twenty minutes about how Gordian III gave up power to Philip the Arab, another 20 minutes of how he gave up power to Philippus, and then a random ten minute diversion into the life of a senator whose actions will be described in detail until the author calls out randomly that he served under emperor Gordian II. "Wait isn't the current emperor Philipus? Don't you mean Gordian III? Why are you giving me this information now!? I've moved on from all the Gordians!"
Aside from those issues, the book is good. Its little missteps are more annoying than deal-breaking. What may break the deal for you is your expectations. The Praetorians aren't nearly as cool as you might have imagined, and because of the lack of sources in the 2nd century, the author is forced to fill the time with fairly useless analyses of how exactly they dressed, what exactly they earned in salary, and what their particular marriage laws were, none of which is consequential to the overall story or his opening thesis besides in a minor way.
That said, even though it feels long, it's actually quite short. Worth checking out the audiobook for under $20. Would not buy a print copy in any format, as my eyes would glaze over after every sentence. But as an audiobook it's a good enough satisfier of any curiosity about the praetorians, and a reasonable summary of the first 300 years of the emperial era for anyone like me who specializes in the republican era.
An Interesting Idea Lacking In Sources
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I went ahead and gave it five stars despite mispronunciations. I've lost hope in this regard.
Buy it
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Fantastic! Great representation of the history of the Praetorians
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love it
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Very detailed and interesting
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Excellent
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The text feels like a dissertation, built from blocks of facts, one right after the other. There is no narrative thread, no deeper context. No framework that ties it together, makes it interesting, or memorable.
The narrator seems a bit excitable, but it doesn’t come across as engaging. It comes across as strange. If feels as though he has never encountered this topic before and isn’t familiar with the text. Just sentence after sentence spat out with, generally for no discernible reason, an eager intonation.
Not much else to say really. Maybe it’s for you. It’s regrettably not for me.
Not for me.
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Exactly what I was looking for
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Enthralling History of the Praetorian Institution
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insightful story. narrator was wonderful, the tempo of narratio a little fast for me. good background to the broader histories and bio's.
well rounded audiobook
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