Robert Hughes Rome

A reader of this site recommended that I read Robert Hughes' Rome, so, when my local public library inaugurated a digital book lending program on January 1, 2012, I signed up for a copy. The program lets only a limited number of people have access to the book at one time, so I had to wait until Friday to get my copy (and now I must remember to digitally-return the book so someone else can read it). I haven't finished it and don't plan to. Although the tone is fun and the writing full of wonderful anecdotes, jumping from one topic to the next almost seamlessly, I was stymied on p. 118 of the digital edition. I couldn't make head or tails of this passage:

The least popular of Caligula's additions to Rome would have been the Tullianum, or Mamertine Prison, the oldest in the city, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. Here, notable captives were incarcerated; this was where Saint Peter supposedly languished in chains...; in this sad little round room with its domed ceiling, Jugurtha, once king of Numidia, died of starvation in 104 C.E., and the Gallic warrior Vercingetorix, Caesar's chief enemy in Gaul, was beheaded in 46 C.E.

The prison is called the Tullianum because it was attributed to an early king of Rome, rightly or wrongly, not Caligula. Julius Caesar, Jugurtha and Vercingetorix all lived before Caligula and the appropriate abbreviation is B.C.E., not its opposite C.E.

Thinking I was being too picky (maybe Hughes only meant that Caligula made repairs to the prison or added on to it -- did he? [If you have the answer, please post in the comments.]), I looked for reviews of the work and found that Mary Beard, author of Fires of Vesuvius, had already said much the same thing, although she says Hughes' Rome is worth reading if you skip to the section on the Renaissance in Rome. If you want a very recent, short history of Rome unburdened by footnotes, I'd like to recommend again Brian Campbell's The Romans and Their World.

Read Mary Beard's review from The Guardian: Rome by Robert Hughes - review
Mary Beard regrets that an elegant history of Rome is marred by howlers.

What did you think of the book? Should I try it again?