The Great, The Mad, and The Bad - A Review of Dynasty by Tom Holland

Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Holland

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It’s hard to talk about ancient Roman history without mentioning the Roman emperors. They loom large in it, after all, both literally (in the form of historical artefacts and documents) and figuratively. From William Shakespeare to Ridley Scott, Robert Graves to Steven Saylor, imperial Rome has provided imaginations both fertile and febrile with a setting and a cast of characters worthy of the stage, the page, and the screen both silver and small.

But of all the emperors who ruled Rome, few were as famous as the emperors of the House of Caesar. On one hand, they defined the heights of greatness an emperor could achieve: they shaped Rome into the vision of marble buildings and wide squares that we in the twenty-first century associate with the words “ancient Rome”. On the other hand, they delineated the depths to which an emperor could descend: when one thinks of the quintessential “mad emperor”, it is emperors from the House of Caesar who form the template for that image.

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