He addresses all aspects of Caligula's life as a conductor of Roman foreign policy and military operations through the sources by ancient writers who reference his reign, such as Suetonius,
Dio Cassius, Tacitus, Josephus, Philo, Seneca the Younger, and Pliny the Elder, with commentary on the sources, points of dispute, and further research.
"She was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking," wrote Roman statesman
Dio Cassius, while Plutarch spoke of "a woman who was haughty and astonishingly proud in the matter of beauty".
The historical narrative is well supported by literary and archeological evidence, including quotes from the histories of Tacitus and
Dio Cassius, the geography of Strabo, and the biography of Suetonius, as well as letters uncovered at Vindolanda.
In chapter 5, for example, Nasrallah discusses Athenagoras's apology (Embassy),
Dio Cassius's account of Emperor Commodus, and the half-length statue of Commodus as Herakles (Musei Capitolini, Rome) into a discussion of the blurred boundary between human and divine.
Though by this time suffering agonies from gout, or perhaps arthritis, he led an invasion of Caledonia (Scotland), whose inhabitants, according to the contemporary historian
Dio Cassius, lived naked in tents and had their women in common.
(1) Such portraits of Elagabalus derive, ultimately, from the accounts of the emperor's reign (218-22 C.E.) provided by
Dio Cassius, Herodian, and the author of the Historia Augusta.
Ancient Roman historian
Dio Cassius, one of the few sources we have on the second rebellion, states that the Jewish uprising against Rome was ignited by the provocative plan of Hadrian, the Roman emperor, to raise a temple to Jupiter in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount and convert the former Jewish capital into a Roman colony.
The ancient Roman historian
Dio Cassius described the death of Antinous in his Roman History as a voluntary sacrifice on behalf of Hadrian.
The Emperor then was Antoninus Pius (138-161), described by the third-century pagan historian
Dio Cassius as "showing the Christians great respect."
The Batavian horsemen and all the Batavians excelled from ancient times among the tribes of Germania Inferior in horsemanship, as appears from Plutarch, Tacitus,
Dio Cassius, and other authors.
The analysis of Augustus' use of spectacle is particularly good, but the discussion of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius often devolves into a simple retelling of what Suetonius, Tacitus, and
Dio Cassius have said, without deeper investigation or critical assessment.