


Tom Holland | The Lives of the Caesars
Sun 27 Apr 2025 | 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Tom Holland, award-winning historian and presenter on the world’s most downloaded history podcast, The Rest of History, will bring to life the life and times of the Caesars through the lens of his new translation of Suetonius’ classic work.
The ancient Roman Empire was the ultimate stage, where emperors ruled not only as leaders but as performers in the grand drama of power. To be Caesar was to dazzle, thrill, and fight for supremacy. No account brings us closer to the lives of these rulers than the vivid and intimate biographies by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, written in AD 121 at the very heart of Rome’s political world. Suetonius masterfully placed each Caesar within the context of their predecessors, revealing how their personalities shaped policies, scandals, and crises, while inviting readers into their inner lives, from their public decisions to private eccentricities.
Now, award-winning author and translator Tom Holland breathes new life into Suetonius’s work with a spellbinding new translation of The Lives of the Caesars. By vividly connecting the personal and political, Holland offers a captivating and immersive experience of an ancient empire that feels both eerily familiar and utterly alien. He will be in conversation with Edmund Lewis.
Talk length: 1 hour including Q&A, followed by a book signing.
Edmund Lewis is Head of Classics at Winchester College. He is the founder of the Winchester Greek Club, a free after-school club devoted to the study of Classical Greek for pupils in state-maintained secondary schools in and around Winchester.
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Venue address: The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester SO23 8SB