Praetorian: The Rise and Fall of Rome's Imperial Bodyguard

The Praetorian Guard more often than not get mixed up and tossed asunder in the scope of history and Hollywood often paints them as irresolute bad-asses. Well if there is any truth to this book then they were nothing but a bunch of spoiled brats. The book is well written and very informative and does not show much bias. Which is good. Seems to me that they were nothing more than militant bunch of whiners who sucked money out of the mouths of real soldiers. What I do not like is that the author tends to throw shade on Americans in the text by insinuating that we are incapable or challenged in our studies on European history.

Sometimes, less is more.

Unquestionably, this is a well researched book. It covers the rise and fall of the praetorian guard from the late Republican era through the principate and dominate of the Imperial area.

Unfortunately, the author chose to include an extraordinary amount of detail which tends to obscure his main points. I found myself having to reread sections as the amount of unnecessary detail often caused my attention to wander.

Kudos to the author for addressing a very interesting topic.

Not so sure I would describe it as riveting but it is a good book that does what it says on the cover; chronicles the rise and fall of the Roman Imperial Guard. Dry but good facts nonetheless.