Reading the Past

Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (I'm reading this now, I, Claudius by Robert Graves (haven't read, saw some of the BBc production), and Suetonius (Twelve Caesarsgossip about the Roman emperors (have read). How do we get the Romans wrong -- Suetonius makes Roman history seem very much like a precursor to Italian history rather than the British stoic Romans version. Yourcenar is French classicist/queer person looking back on one of her culture heros (not so much about Britain as about Roman civilization as an ideal, but from a French perspective rather than a British perspective. Graves is idiosyncratic -- haven't read this one but have read one of his White Goddess novels. One Rosemary Sutcliffe for the British position (Eagle of the Ninth if I'm remembering my titles correctly.