Rome's Enemies Within

The greatest danger to Roman emperors was the threat of deadly conspiracies arising among the Senate, the imperial court or even their own families All the emperors that reigned from Augustus to the end of the first century AD faced such efforts to overthrow or assassinate them. John McHugh uncovers these conspiracies, narrating them and seeking to explain them. The underlying cause in many cases was the decline in influence, patronage and status granted by emperors to the Senatorial class, leading some to seek power for themselves or a more generous candidate. Attempted assassinations or coups led the emperors to mistrust the Senate and rely more on freedmen, causing more resentment. Paranoid emperors often reacted to the merest hint of treason, real or imagined, with punishments and executions, leading more of those around them to consider desperate measures out of self-preservation. And of course, amid this vicious circle of poisonous mistrust, there were ambitious family members promoting their own (or their offspring’s) claims to the purple, and the duplicitous Praetorian Guard. John McHugh brings to light a century of assassination, conspiracy and betrayal, exploring the motives and aims of the plotters and the bloody cost of success or failure.