Et Tu, Brute?: The Deaths of the Roman Emperors

A cartoonist’s wry and bloody romp through Roman history.

A work of cartoon history with a touch of Edward Gorey’s dark wit, Et Tu, Brute? is an irreverent, illustrated compendium of the deaths of all the Roman emperors, from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus. Here in all their glory are Nero (stabbing himself in the throat), Tiberius (smothered in his sleep by his successor), Caligula (killed by his own praetorian guard), Claudius (fed poisonous mushrooms by his wife), Commodus (strangled by his wrestling partner), Antoninus (died of a surfeit of cheese), and many more.

100 illustrations

Jason Novak is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, the Paris Review, the Rumpus, and the Believer. He lives in Oakland, California.