Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar (Paperback)

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