Bøger af Phillip Barlag

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. As catchy as that aphorism is, itΓÇÖs sadly untrue, even if it has a nice ring to it. The one thing Nero is well-known for is the one thing he actually didnΓÇÖt do. But fear not, the truth of his life, his rule and what he did with unrestrained power, is plenty weird, salacious and horrifying.And he is not alone. Roman history, from the very foundation of the city, is replete with people and stories that shock our modern sensibilities. Evil Emperors puts the worst of RomeΓÇÖs rulers in one place and offers a review of their lives and a historical context for what made them into what they became. It concludes by ranking them, counting down to the worst ruler in RomeΓÇÖs long history. Lucius Tarquinius Suburbus called peace conferences with warring states, only to slaughter foreign leaders; Commodus sold offices of the empire to the highest bidder; Caligula demanded to be worshipped as a god, and marched troops all the way to the ocean simply to collect seashells as ΓÇ£proofΓÇ¥ of their conquest; even the Roman Senate itself was made up of oppressors, exploiters, and murderers of all stripes. Author Phillip Barlag profiles a host of evil Roman rulers across the history of their empire, along with the faceless governing bodies that condoned and even carried out heinous acts.Roman history, deviant or otherwise, is a subject of endless fascination. WhatΓÇÖs never been done before is to look at the worst of the worst at the same time, comparing them side by side, and ranking them against one another. Until now.

History is littered with examples of tyrants, hopelessly out of touch with the plight of the commoners, ruthlessly pursuing their own ambitions or hedonistic whims. But Caesar was a different kind of leader. Despite some bad press, in fact he never saw himself as above the average Roman citizen. Although he certainly knew he was an extraordinary human being, he also regarded himself as fundamentally one of the people, and acted like it. In his life and in his career, he created a new paradigm of leadership, and along the way, created the path to success for any leader in a complex organization. In a book that Doris Kearns Goodwin has called ''''brilliantly crafted to draw leadership lessons from history,'''' Philip Barlag uses dramatic and colorful incidents from Caesar's career to illustrate what modern leaders can learn from him. Central to Barlag's argument is the distinction between power and force. When leading his own organization, Caesar never used brute force to motivate his followers. Time and again he exercised a power rooted in his demonstrated personal integrity and his essentially egalitarian relationship with the Romans. People followed him because they wanted to, not because they were compelled to. Over 2000 years after Caesar's death this is still the kind of loyalty every leader wants to inspire. Barlag shows how anyone can lead like Caesar.