Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
Tom Holland in conversation with Zuleika Rodgers
After conquering the world, the great Roman republic collapsed. Rome was drowned in blood. So terrible were the civil wars that the Roman people finally came to welcome the rule of an autocrat who could give them peace: Augustus – “The Divinely Favoured One”. The lurid glamour of the dynasty founded by Augustus has never faded. Now, in the sequel to Rubicon, Tom Holland gives a dazzling portrait of Rome’s first imperial dynasty. Dynasty traces the full story of Roman rule: its allure and the blood-steeped shadows cast by its crimes. It is a world populated by murderers and metrosexuals, adulterers and druids, scheming grandmothers and reluctant gladiators. Dynasty is the portrait of a family that transformed and stupefied Rome.
Tom Holland is one of Britain’s greatest popular historians and a best-selling author of several works on classical and medieval history. He is also a novelist and documentary film-maker. Professor Zuleika Rodgers is Head of the Department of Near & Middle East Studies at Trinity College, Dublin.
Recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle on 26 September 2015.