Blood Mingled with Wine: The Life of the Emperor Heliogabalus

The Emperor Heliogabalus was described by old historians as the most despicable and depraved of all Emperors, worse even than Nero or Caligula. Nigel Barnes ('A Dream Within A Dream: The Life Of Edgar Allan Poe', Peter Owen) has described the psychology of this enigmatic ruler and, having stripped away the ancient prejudices of the times, produced a biography of the Emperor for the twenty-first century. The clashes between his sexual orientation and new religion with the narrower mores of ancient Rome led to a period described by one historian as 'blood mingled with wine'.