Murderous Monarchs Quiz

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 11:27 am

[quote=""cw gortner""]I've always loved that horse story. The awful Penthouse movie aside, Caligula is generally not very well covered in film or books. I'd love to read your take on his story.[/quote]

Allan Massie's "Caligula" was great as are the rest of his Roman novels.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 11:29 am

Full marks! I am a total swot!
Seriously I winged several of them. Atilla was pure luck, as was the wardrobe malfunction, but hey, I'll take the points any way they come

Alaric · Post by **Alaric** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 12:24 pm

It was no minor wardrobe malfunction though! It's what completely drove him over the edge in his final years and brought an end to a 700-year-old dynasty.

Incredibly some people in Russia want him canonised.

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 1:41 pm

Yay. I'm a total loser. 4/10.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 5:21 pm

Yes, Misfit! Apparently heis! I've never even heard of that movie... must take a lot of mental notes here....

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 5:38 pm

If I remember that used to be shown on TV every Easter a long long time ago. It's a book also, I can't recall the author's name off the top of my head. I enjoyed it but I recall some other reviewers on Amazon stating that he was diddling with history a bit.

annis · Post by **annis** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 6:09 pm

I loved "The Robe"! Funnily enough I've never seen the movie, but I remember having a satisfying little weep over the book when i read it as a teenager; that ending really got to me "It's a far, far,better thing that I do--" etc ( I know that's Dickens, but he does it better than me!)

I can see why you might have reservations about reading someone else's take on a subject you're considering for a novel of your own, Michelle. Douglas Jackson's "Caligula" is written from the POV of a gladiatorial animal trainer who becomes Caligula's personal elephant handler, (well, we that knew C was eccentric) so probably safe to say it wouldn't be an angle you'd take!
Douglas Jackson achieved a measure of fame in the Uk with this debut novel by scoring a very lucrative publishing deal on it and its proposed successor from Random House.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 6:24 pm

I loved "The Robe"! Funnily enough I've never seen the movie

Ah, Richard Burton in his hey-day, and the gorgeous Jean Simmons.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 6:39 pm

I can see why you might have reservations about reading someone else's take on a subject you're considering for a novel of your own, Michelle. Douglas Jackson's "Caligula" is written from the POV of a gladiatorial animal trainer who becomes Caligula's personal elephant handler, (well, we that knew C was eccentric) so probably safe to say it wouldn't be an angle you'd take!

HA-ha! Yes, I probably won't be doing too many gladiator novels. For one, my publishing house would hoof me out on my... well, you know.

Ah, Richard Burton in his hey-day

YES! And in Cleopatra!

amyb · Post by **amyb** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 8:04 pm

That was fun! I got 7/10 - not too shabby!