The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

In the sequel to ‘Rubicon’, Tom Holland gives a dazzling portrait of Rome’s first imperial dynasty. The book traces the full astonishing story of its rule of the world: both the brilliance of its allure, and the blood-steeped shadows cast by its crimes. Ranging from the great capital rebuilt in marble by Augustus to the dank and barbarian-haunted forests of Germany, it is populated by a spectacular cast: murderers and metrosexuals, adulterers and druids, scheming grandmothers and reluctant gladiators. ‘Dynasty’ is the portrait of a family that transformed and stupefied Rome.