Product Description

Who was Antonius? Why did he become a God? in Beloved and God, Royston Lambert tackles all the mysteries the story presents. With many illustations of the people and places concerned in the affair and of the splendid and fascinating artefacts which it produced, this account, based on thorough research, is a compelling read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #912527 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

I can't believe I didn't know about this!
This book was something of a revelation. I must confess that I (and perhaps several other billion people worldwide) had never heard of Antinous. Most people at least know something about Hadrian, his wall dividing England/Scotland for example, but nothing about the significance of his gay lover.

This book explains how someone of such little apparent importance became so influential. Within a few days of his death, aged 18-20, he was deified; within four years a magnificent city bearing his name had sprung up where he had died; and within a decade a cult worshipping him had spread throughout the Roman empire. This excellent book follows the relationship between Hadrian and Antinous and explains how its effects have reverberated even to our own times.

An absorbing "love story".
You may wonder how a footnote to history can be made to stretch to some 300 pages. After all, there are only a handful of brief references to Antinous in the ancient writers and rather more statues of him in the great museums. But I found every page of Lambert's book totally absorbing both when I first read it some 20 years ago and yet again more recently. It's beautifully written, sensitive and scholarly without being in the least bit dry or academic. And when the author probes the mysteries of Antinous' death and burial place you trust his reasoning and his conclusions. At the time of writing this review I note that the hardback version looks pretty pricey in the secondhand market, but if you invest in the less pricey paperback I don't think you'll be disappointed.