AUGUSTUS

This is not one of Buchan's essentially popular books, for it is a serious biography of the emperor Augustus, Julius Caesar's nephew and heir. Buchan paints a more glamorous picture of Augustus than is conceded by most historians, and sees his period and his achievements through rose-colored spectacles. He recognizes the shrewd steps by which he routed the assassins and ordered the empire, but he feels that thereby Augustus saved civilization. Thoroughgoing job of scholarly worth, but not spiced with the zest that Graves gave to Claudius. One can count surely on Buchan for a craftsmanlike piece of work.