Dynasty

Holland's masterly account of this first wicked century of the Roman empire is, at its heart, a political analysis . . . the story he tells strides onwards across the landscape of grief and horror without pause or stutter . . . Holland is unshockable as he proceeds with breezy, clear-eyed analysis from one degrading display of cruelty and paranoia to the next . . . It is down to his skill as a storyteller that there's no difficulty in imagining that it might all happen again tomorrow * Sunday Times *
Deft and skilful . . . Among the many virtues of Tom Holland's terrific history is that he does not shrink from seeing the Roman emperors for what they were: 'the west's primal examples of tyranny' . . . Dynasty is both a formidable effort to compile what we can know about the ancient world and a sensational story * Observer *
This is a wonderful, surging narrative - a brilliant and meticulous synthesis of the ancient sources . . . This is a story that should be read by anyone interested in history, politics or human nature - and it has never been better told * Mail on Sunday *
This is history in which fact and fiction overlap, rigorously researched and lightened with dashes of humour . . . first-rate ancient history and a compulsively good read * Daily Mail *
A swaggering history of the dynastic house that Julius Caesar built. Nothing entertains like excess and the weird cruelties, bloody intrigues and eye-popping depravities of emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero are queasily fascinating * Sunday Express *
A witty and skilful storyteller . . . He recounts with pleasure his racy tales of psychopathic cruelty, incest, paedophilia, matricide, fratricide, assassination and depravity * New Statesman *
Brilliant, terrifying and compelling * Observer *
A thrilling book by one of the country's best popular historians . . . genuinely breathtaking * History Today *
Holland has crafted a history of early Rome that has all the gripping detail and narrative momentum of a novel... he gives the reader a startlingly visceral sense of the violence and brutality and wretched excess of ancient Rome -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
[A] dramatic, intrigue-ridden, blood-and-guts tale of Rome's first line of emperors -- Peter Jones * The Times *
Dynasty, like its companion volume Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic, is a fine example of narrative historical writing. Yet you could also read it as something else entirely: a meditation on the enduring power and possibilities of storytelling -- Richard Miles * Financial Times *
Holland writes with all the excitement and immediacy of the gossip-mongers of Rome . . . One senses that if Tom Holland were emperor for the day he would give the crowd not only the bread and circuses but a jolly good education too -- Daisy Dunn * Evening Standard *
A richly panoramic picture of Rome in the first century AD -- Allan Massie * Literary Review *
Holland's Tacitean vision of the dynasty of Augustus makes for a very compelling read * Times Literary Supplement *
Holland is at the top of his game, blending deep scholarly skill with real literary talent -- Dan Jones * Evening Standard *
Thrilling, thunderous prose, fully equal to that of the great days of Thermopylae and Salamis * Wall Street Journal *
Holland is perhaps Britain's most engrossing historical storyteller. He has a rare gift of combining academic respectability with a great knack as a narrator * Catholic Herald *
This is great material, and Holland does it justice with a chiseled prose style and an eye for the luminous detail.... Holland is a master of narrative history. On the strength of Dynasty, he deserves a laurel wreath * Washington Post *
A vivid account of five Roman emperors, emphasizing their vices and vicious behavior with less attention to the vast empire, which continued to prosper despite them * Kirkus *
Dynasty has Holland's usual novelistic ability to bring a narrative alive, together with his extraordinary command of ancient sources * New York Times Book Review *