Dynasty
The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Tom Holland
About this listen
Author and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon—his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic—with Dynasty, a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors.
Dynasty continues Rubicon's story, opening where that book ended: with the murder of Julius Caesar. This is the period of the first and perhaps greatest Roman emperors. It's a colorful story of rule and ruination, from the rise of Augustus to the death of Nero. Holland's expansive history also has distinct shades of I, Claudius, with five wonderfully vivid (and, in three cases, thoroughly depraved) emperors—Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—featured, along with numerous fascinating secondary characters.
Intrigue, murder, naked ambition and treachery, greed, gluttony, lust, incest, pageantry, decadence—the tale of these five Caesars continues to cast a mesmerizing spell across the millennia.
©2015 Tom Holland (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world's preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome's rise to glory into an erudite book filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome's shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire.
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Rome from the fall of Troy through Julius Caesar
- By Mike From Mesa on 12-11-12
By: Anthony Everitt
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Secret Lives of the Tsars
- Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia
- By: Michael Farquhar
- Narrated by: Enn Reitel
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Scandal! Intrigue! Cossacks! Here the world’s most engaging royal historian chronicles the world’s most fascinating imperial dynasty: the Romanovs, whose three-hundred-year reign was remarkable for its shocking violence, spectacular excess, and unimaginable venality. In this incredibly entertaining history, Michael Farquhar collects the best, most captivating true tales of Romanov iniquity.
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A good introduction to the Romanovs
- By Daniel Burgon on 07-14-14
By: Michael Farquhar
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Ten Caesars
- Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine
- By: Barry Strauss
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling classical historian Barry Strauss tells the story of three-and-a-half centuries of the Roman Empire through the lives of 10 of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine.
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Good for beginners
- By Richferguson1 on 03-01-20
By: Barry Strauss
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After the Prophet
- The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam
- By: Lesley Hazleton
- Narrated by: Lesley Hazleton
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Combining meticulous research with compelling storytelling, After the Prophet explores the volatile intersections of religion and politics, psychology and culture, and history and current events. It is an indispensable guide to the depth and power of the Shia-Sunni split.
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A good novel - but poor history
- By Yosemite on 03-08-19
By: Lesley Hazleton
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Warlords of Ancient Mexico
- How the Mayans and Aztecs Ruled for More Than a Thousand Years
- By: Peter G. Tsouras
- Narrated by: Paul Christy
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
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Learn the unbelievable true history of the great warrior tribes of Mexico. More than 13 centuries of incredible spellbinding history are detailed in this intriguing study of the rulers and warriors of Mexico. Dozens of these charismatic leaders of nations and armies are brought to life by the deep research and entertaining storytelling of Peter Tsouras. Tsouras introduces the reader to the colossal personalities of the period.
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Written in 1996. Narration disrespectful
- By Amazon Customer on 04-30-20
By: Peter G. Tsouras
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Dying Every Day
- Seneca at the Court of Nero
- By: James S. Romm
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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James Romm seamlessly weaves together the life and written words, the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that enmeshed Seneca the Younger in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, despot and madman.
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Outstanding
- By michael bobadilla on 05-04-23
By: James S. Romm
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Lost to the West
- The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
- By: Lars Brownworth
- Narrated by: Lars Brownworth
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
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Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy. For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization.
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Just a delight for anyone interested in history !
- By Cinders on 05-28-13
By: Lars Brownworth
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The Medici
- Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Against the background of an age that saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning, Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence as well as the Italian Renaissance, which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola.
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Fun Story Bad History
- By Elizabeth Barrett on 05-09-16
By: Paul Strathern
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Tyrant
- Shakespeare on Politics
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
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As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution.
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Too Close for Comfort
- By C. Gross on 05-10-18
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Claudius the God
- By: Robert Graves
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Graves continues Claudius' story with the epic adulteries of Messalina, King Herod Agrippa's betrayal of his old friend, and the final arrival of that bloodthirsty teenager, Nero.
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The Deified King of Historical Fiction
- By Darwin8u on 12-27-12
By: Robert Graves
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What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book - against a background of today’s “sculpture wars” - Mary Beard tells the story of how for more than two millennia portraits of the rich, powerful, and famous in the Western world have been shaped by the image of Roman emperors, especially the “Twelve Caesars”, from the ruthless Julius Caesar to the fly-torturing Domitian.
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This foray into art history is a disappointment.
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Shallow and unsatisfying
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The Roman Republic was one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of civilization. After its founding in 509 BCE, the Romans refused to allow a single leader to seize control of the state and grab absolute power. The Roman commitment to cooperative government and peaceful transfers of power was unmatched in the history of the ancient world. But by the year 133 BCE, the republican system was unable to cope with the vast empire Rome now ruled.
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Interesting, albeit a bit dry
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The Roman Empire lasted a solid 500 years—an impressive number by any standard. The decline and final collapse of the Roman Empire took longer than most other empires even existed. Any historian trying to unearth the grand strategy of the Roman Empire must, therefore, always remain cognizant of the time scale. Over the centuries, the Empire's underlying economy, political arrangements, military affairs, and the myriad of external threats it faced were in constant flux, making adaptability to changing circumstances as important to Roman strategists as it is to strategists of the modern era.
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Antony NOT Anthony
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This entertaining companion to the massively popular history podcast tackles everything from Alexander the Great to Agatha Christie, the Wars of the Roses to Watergate—with a unique blend of wit, wisdom, and good old-fashioned banter. Featuring an introduction from podcast hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, this book cleverly demonstrates that the past—from modern to ancient and every time in between—is both closer to us than we might realize and bafflingly strange, all at once.
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Holland and Sandbrook!!!
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1177 B.C. (Revised and Updated)
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This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages.
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Look past the one-star reviews: this is an enlightening and engaging read.
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-07-22
By: Eric H. Cline
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The Rise of Rome
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- By: Anthony Everitt
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Story
Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world's preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome's rise to glory into an erudite book filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome's shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire.
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Rome from the fall of Troy through Julius Caesar
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What listeners say about Dynasty
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Josh
- 06-02-16
Highly recommended
The author's delivery of this rather dry subject made this a very enjoyable read. I will definitely check out his other books on the subject. The audiobook has a great narrator, which helps to do the same.
I'd definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy ancient history.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Oskar
- 06-26-16
do you like rome?
You do? gotta read it
so exciting. nero, the senate, everything. power snd people. timeless. glory days
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1 person found this helpful
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- BROOKLYN
- 09-05-24
Dynasty
Spectacular and attention grabbing narration. Made all those Roman characters memorable. Not an easy task.
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- Nicholas Heltzel
- 12-08-24
A Masterpiece Of Storytelling & History
Tom Holland may only consider himself a historian, but really, he’s a storyteller who has taken an interest in history. His narrative is so compelling that sometimes you forget that it’s a history. Holland is a talented classicist and I’ll be listening to Dominion shortly.
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- Mary
- 01-28-16
Accessible, enjoyable history
This is an accessible, interesting survey of the first family of the early Roman Principate - the Julio-Claudians. As the Republic breathes its last, Octavian, grand-nephew of the assassinated Julius Caesar, himself still a teenager, rises from the ashes of a civil war to become the first man in Rome. Through careful managing of his family's "brand", Octavian, known to history as Augustus (the great one), forges a demi-godlike family mythos which more than anything is his legacy. Two thousand years later, we are still intrigued with the Julio-Claudians and wonder "what might have been?" had his heirs been as astute as he and Fate been a bit kinder.
There was little new in this book to me fact-wise, however, I very much enjoyed how Mr. Holland sets the back-drop of the Empire. He explains Rome's history, its political climate, and how the Romans see themselves in relation to the rest of the world. This is a huge factor in why and how the House of Caesar rose to such prominence and why their mythology still has a hold on us today.
What I found even more fascinating are the digressions the author takes as he discusses the Roman world in the first century and the problems the Empire faced, especially in regards to immigration. It truly helped to parallel their world to ours.
Sadly, despite all his careful planning, Augustus was not able to force the rest of his family to adhere to his vision for it. In the end, despite being the blood of the "divine Julius", his family are only human after all. Greed, treachery, hubris, paranoia, and plain old bad luck wreak havoc on Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and their various family members, until the line is extinguished in the last scion of the Julio-Claudians, Nero.
I also appreciated that when he goes into some of the more scurrilous and scandalous stories about the family, the author often gives reasonable explanations as to why those stories may have arisen without treating them as either absolutely true or negating them completely.
The book reads very much like a novel and as such is quite an easy read. I would definitely read more by this author and would be very much interested in a book of his focussed on the women of the dynasty.
Unfortunately, I was not thrilled with the narrator. He had some peculiar pronunciations that irked me for some reason. He was serviceable but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone else could have/would have been a better choice. No idea who that someone would be though.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Katherine D.
- 07-30-22
Beyond fantastic.. Read it!
Tom Holland has emerged as the greatest historian of the 21st century. Jaw dropping stuff.
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- Chrobry
- 12-05-17
great story great reading, what not to love?
author did a great job of writing the story of julian-claudian dynasty with great anecdotes as, we'll humanity. while the narrator did outstanding job of bringing it to life. ...perfect audio book.
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- Sawyer
- 02-27-23
Fantastic book
This was my favorite of Tom Holland’s books so far. While he never comes out and says it, it seems like Tom is trying to do the opposite of Suetonius and argue that many of the worst acts taken by the Augustan successors were done deliberately for specific political or personal reasons, not because the emperors were insane. Definitely worth your time.
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- Denver Diva
- 07-10-23
Tom Holland never disappoints
Holland goes into such great detail! You won’t want to put this one down. Even if you feel you’ve read it all on Ancient Rome.
The story is beautifully done,
Also consider Persian Fire by Tom Holland.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Todd P.
- 11-22-18
Pretty good
Entertaining, although not as good as Rubicon.
Overall an edifying narrative of the emperors in the house of Caesar. Bridging from where Rubicon left off with Scipio Africanus, taking us through the Roman Civil Wars, and the rise and fall of the House of Caesar. From the rise of Augustus, the establishment of the Augustinian dynasty, down through the fall of Nero.
Dynasty given its timeframe and subject matter was more a of chronicle than its predecessor Rubicon. A few chapters dragged on a bit. Others were attention grabbing. Was awaiting the climax like Rubicon, it never came. The rise and fall of the House of Caesar was more of a slow burn.Well suited for the audio book format. Solid narration.
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2 people found this helpful