We are glad to see that a competent English translation has been published of this well-known book. The study of the Roman Emperor is in itself of great historical interest, and reads like a romance. It is evidently based on very detailed researches into the original records, but Dr. Sachs has exercised a fine gift in making as unobtrusive as possible the evidently rich background of knowledge against which he painted his picture. The book is also of considerable psychopathological interest, for it raises in a penetrating way some of the most obscure problems of the relation between narcissism and sadism, with the curious part played by the super-ego when exposed to a most exceptional environment.