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A review by jmatkinson1
Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Holland
4.0
From the rise of Julius Caesar to the death of Nero, five generations of the same family ruled Rome. The greatest of all was Augustus, a living God, whose machinations influenced public policy and whose belief in power meant that he manipulated his extended family to his own ends. In-fighting, murder, incest thread through the lives of the family of Augustus and in the end the family imploded. Nero, the final Emperor, was deposed and with his passing a new era dawned for Rome as a republic once more.
This book is not a doorstop, it is actually a very readable length. Holland covered a lot of history, a lot of scandal and makes many suppositions. The true story of the Caesars is shocking and quite venal and Holland does not shy away from the nasty end of happenings. My only complaint is one which is fairly common in recent history books which appeal the more populist end of the market and that is that fact and fiction tend to blur at times. There is much interpretation of actions in terms of thoughts and feelings which are not necessarily backed by contemporaneous sources and therefore should be treated as fictional interpretations rather than fact. However that is a minor quibble because the actual material Holland has to work with is so juicy and almost fictitious in its outrage that this is a great read as well as being a well-researched tome.
This book is not a doorstop, it is actually a very readable length. Holland covered a lot of history, a lot of scandal and makes many suppositions. The true story of the Caesars is shocking and quite venal and Holland does not shy away from the nasty end of happenings. My only complaint is one which is fairly common in recent history books which appeal the more populist end of the market and that is that fact and fiction tend to blur at times. There is much interpretation of actions in terms of thoughts and feelings which are not necessarily backed by contemporaneous sources and therefore should be treated as fictional interpretations rather than fact. However that is a minor quibble because the actual material Holland has to work with is so juicy and almost fictitious in its outrage that this is a great read as well as being a well-researched tome.