Harry Sidebottom

What happens when you put the Roman Empire in the hands of a teenage boy?

Sex, power, religion and death: the life and times of the worst emperor of all.

On 8 June AD218 a fourteen-year-old Syrian boy, egged on by his grandmother, led an army to battle in a Roman civil war. Against all expectations, he was victorious.

Varius Avitus Bassianus, known to the modern world as Heliogabalus, was proclaimed emperor. The next four years were to be the strangest in the history of the empire.

We are very pleased to welcome Harry Sidebottom back to Ely for the launch of his latest book, The Mad Emperor.

Harry Sidebottom’s portrait of this extraordinary figure also takes in Roman sexuality, racism and religious extremism, and shines a light on the women with the power to make or break an Emperor. In the first biography of Heliogabalus in over half a century, the bestselling author of the Warrior of Rome series turns his skill for recreating the past to non-fiction, unveiling the high drama of Ancient Rome as we’ve never seen it before.

Dr Harry Sidebottom teaches Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford. Since publication of Fire in the East in 2008, he has written and published a novel each year, all of which have been Sunday Times top 5 bestsellers. His Warrior of Rome series has been published in 14 countries.