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

4.0

A good follow-on to his earlier "Rubicon", in this book Holland traces the stories of the first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and finally Nero. If your view of Roman history has been largely informed by Robert Graves' "I, Claudius" (book or excellent BBC TV series), get ready for some surprises. It's hard to imagine how villainous these men were. While the cadence of his writing is strange at first (almost like Mark Twain's characterization of German), you get used to it quickly, and simply enjoy the lively telling of their stories.