Dynasty

"Tom Holland is one of the big beasts of the classical world. He also writes about what happened after the Roman Empire and about the Saxons. He did an amazing translation of Herodotus a few years ago, which is one of my most prized possessions. He knows his stuff. In this book he’s focusing in on the Julio-Claudian emperors, who run from Augustus in around 31 BC all the way up to Nero in 68 AD. What’s nice about Dynasty is that if anyone wants to talk about this period, they’ll immediately mention I, Claudius. They’ll know their Nero, they’ll know their Caligula, and lots of things here and there. This book fills in all the gaps. He also gives you the gory details, but treats them with some historical analysis. So when he writes about Caligula, he writes about the horse. Then he says, ‘Well, that isn’t quite true.’ But there is stuff that is true, particularly on Nero. Nero is as bad as they come, really. Well, we know he liked his horses. What probably happened was that a horse died; he was very upset about it and gave it a public honour. Then, this turned into the story that he wanted to make the horse, when it was alive, a consul. There is another story about Caligula, about when he wanted to invade Britain (it was Claudius who actually did, a few years later). It was said that Caligula got to the coast of northern France where all his troops were waiting and asking how they were going to get to Britain. And he said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll collect seashells and throw them at the Britons.’ Everyone though, ‘Oh, it’s just Caligula being mad.’ But actually, the Latin for ‘seashells’ and for ‘small boat’ are very similar. So what probably happened is that Caligula went, ‘Let’s make some boats to go across the Channel.’ But because he’s seen as mad, it attracts the wrong definition. That happens quite a lot, and Tom Holland is quite good at deciphering it. They’ve been heavily influenced by the histories that were written by Suetonius. He writes his Life of the Caesars and it’s all gossip and rumour and hearsay. Tacitus is brilliant, but he also gives a lot of weight to these really gossipy, rumour-filled stories. “Nero is as bad as they come, really” Tom Holland is also very good at saying, ‘Here’s what Rome was like at the time.’ So when the Great Fire of Rome happened in 64 AD, here’s why it was such a big deal. Rome is the biggest city in the world by far, it’s always having fires, but this was a seminal moment. He takes you down into the streets of Rome—not just to the top of the Palatine and Nero’s massive Domus Aurea. We’re very keen at the school that they don’t come away with, ‘Oh I heard somewhere that—’ Where did you hear it from? Let’s be historical. Let’s be forensic about it, rather than gossipy."