There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about his book. In fact overall, I have very little complaints. It was well researched, well written, illustrated to my liking though I always would love even more photos or reproductions. What annoyed me was the fact that the author kept repeating himself, he referenced the previously mentioned caesars as if for the first time in practically every chapter, he repeated details about family connections from page 1 to page 600. In quite a few places it felt like this was a TV show where each episode HAD to be recapped for the viewer that maybe didn’t see it. And that’s the opposite of what i see a continuous history book should be doing, I get the importance of drawing connections with the past in a history book but every chapter is overkill,

If you are a fan of the Roman empire, then this is a must book for you to read. Barry Strauss is a fabulous author who has simplified ten of the greatest Roman Emperors.

I found this to be a great read for those who have an interest in Roman/Classic history or rulers. A nice introduction/ jumping point to the ten men that were talked about.

A concise, yet detailed, history of the Roman Empire and its emperors in one book seems like it would be impossible. Yet in Ten Emperors: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Barry Strauss manages the feat. Structuring his book around ten of the most influential of the Roman emperors (Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian, and Constantine) Strauss provides readers with a comprehensible, detailed view of the Roman Empire: its rise, its fall, and everything in between.

Each chapter provides a biography of an emperor, examines the larger world he grew up in, how he came to the throne, and the impacts he had on the empire- whether for better or worse. Strauss also explores the sources this information comes from and reminds us that many of the more famous stories (like Nero fiddling while Rome burned) were written by people with their own agendas and not a recording of unbiased facts. Whether today we can believe what is generally "known" about many of these figures is often up for debate and Strauss does not hesitate to say so.

Another excellent highlight of Ten Caesars is Strauss' crediting the powerful women involved in the empire. Mothers, sisters, and wives of emperors get their due here as influential people- even if women technically played no part in Roman politics. Strauss is upfront about the idea that Roman society itself often felt threatened by powerful women, and so stories of women poisoning their emperors husbands, fathers, brothers, etc abounded. The reality probably involved far less poisoning. Although since women around the emperors were used as pawns to strengthen dynastic alliances, and those alliances often involved the emperors than murdering the men their women married, one can see the temptation.

Although often repetitive, Ten Caesars is well-researched, well written, and maintains a steady pace. Whether novice or expert on the Roman Empire and its emperors, any reader will enjoy Strauss' Ten Emperors and come away from it with a more detailed understanding of this fascinating and complicated period of history, and the men and women who influenced it.

The ten most powerful, capricious, vicious, monument building and successful rulers of an immense empire; who wouldn't be interested in that story? Barry Strauss dishes up the lives of ten of Rome's Emperors with a well informed narrative that flows nicely and feels surprisingly contemporary. These are familiar tales to our modern ear as the careers of both elite men bred for the role of god and, also, men from the lower ranks who all cleverly and viciously clawed their way to the top. Strauss uses comparisons to modern counterparts, such as CEOs, which provides an easy way to absorb the sense of these rulers.
The stories are replete with contemporary sources, place names and references to religions, sects and later times which lends a fine authenticity and a feeling of the universal nature of leadership in any time. The Romans may have sometimes been more obvious in their exercise of absolute power but the strong, clever, ambitious and brutal quite often find their way to the top of human political systems and in these lives we see the authoritarian leaders throughout human history .
The author has delved into the less well-known story of the mothers, wives, daughters and other women who parented, funded, promoted, tore down, manipulated, poisoned, and otherwise controlled the power levers in the Roman system and tied it to the narrative. The cumulative effect of all these women over the 400 years of these ten Emperors is quite amazing.
I'd recommend this book to my friends who read history or politics.
My thanks to Netgalley.com which provided to me a free copy of this book.
http://www.mdcsr.com/book-talk

Ten Caesars is renowned historian Barry Strauss's condensed version of the Roman Empires Ten Greatest Emperors and hats off to him for making an often dry, tedious topic seem exciting and accessible. It allows the reader to learn about the ten most prominent Roman figures and seamlessly scroll through 300 years in time without the need to pick up a separate book to learn about each individual or different epochs.

I must admit, I used to despise history, primarily due to a teacher at school with a lacklustre approach, but since then I have thoroughly enjoyed educating myself on the myriad of topics history encompasses. Strauss is one of the very best for providing sound content in a manner which is eminently readable, regardless of your level of prior knowledge. The prose is crisp, engaging and easy to follow and the narrative full of intrigue.

You'd be unlikely to find a more trustworthy, captivating account of the empire than what Mr Strauss provides us with here; you can tell that it's all meticulously researched to ensure a solid basis and underpinning. The only reason for withholding a star is that in certain parts it did drag a little, but it was incredibly minor. Each account covers both the favourable and unfavourable aspects of the featured emperor's leading to what feels like a balanced, nuanced work of excellent quality and reliability. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for an ARC.

A very engaging overview of Roman emperors, the book provides insight while avoiding a scholarly view. This us popular history and very enjoyable

An interesting and engaging history book, informative and well written.
It's always great to read about the Ancient Rome emperors and the women that surrounded and/or influenced them.
The style of writing is clear, it can be read as a historical novel and it's entertaining.
I really liked it and I think it's a must read for whoever wants to learn about the most famous Roman emperors.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC

A great layman's guide to the important Emperors who shaped the Roman Empire. As such, it's easy to flick to a particular emperor to learn about him, those around him, his influencers and what he did.

This non-fiction book is a modern take on Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus' Twelve Caesars, which was written in A.D. 121. Unlike Tranquillus, Strauss opts to focus on the most significant of the Roman Emperors instead of chronological biographies. He leaves out those Emperors who had short or insignificant reigns, although he does refer to them. Two of the most colourful Caesars - Claudius and Caligula - didn't make the list.

Ten Caesars is not an academic book so it is very accessible to the history buff who is interested in this period and the author is clear about where sources exist and where assumptions are made. Each emperor is fleshed out with depictions of his physical appearance, characteristics and achievements so that we are not faced with a series of facts and unpronounceable names that leave us with a mingled mass of information. Individual and distinct people are what we discover. Astounding to think that these are real people: you couldn't make up these characters.

One book manages to give an overview of more than three hundred years of one of the most successful and important empires the world has ever known. Read this and feel like a Roman expert. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Ten Caesars.

I requested Ten Caesars because I love Roman history and visited the Eternal City a little over four years ago. Also, Rome, the HBO show is one of my favorites.

Ten Caesars is the biographical account of the ten prominent emperors that ruled Rome and shaped its infrastructure, politics and future.

Thanks to my interest in Roman history, nearly all of the emperors were familiar to me, as well as some of their achievements.

I very much enjoyed the brief historical accounts of the brilliant and ambitious women that worked behind the scenes of the emperors; the mothers and wives who greased the cogs of politics, sometimes sight unseen, sometimes not.

Most of them did not rest on their laurels; they encouraged, supported and aided their sons and husbands on their rise to power and provided advice and wisdom the men could not receive anywhere else.

Unless they were plotting to overthrow them.

The author has done meticulous research and it shows; after awhile, it all got confusing; the complicated names, the intermarrying of one royal son to a royal daughter, the names of all the families that ruled.

Ruling the Roman Empire was the original Game of Thrones.

One detail I did not know; lots of suicides. I guess that's what you do when your back is up against the wall and you do not want to be taken by the enemy.

I don't know what the hardcover edition of the book will look like but I would have loved to see what a map of the Roman Empire, at the time of Augustus and at the end of Constantine's rule, looked like, for comparison.

Also, a family tree would have been super helpful! I know it would have taken up several pages but it would have been good to see how the family lines grew and evolved through intermarriage and children.

This was a pretty good read but some visuals would have helped enormously.

"Ten Caesars is essential history as well as fascinating biography." I would completely agree with this. Some parts lagged a little though.

Taking ten emperors from Augustus to Constantine, Strauss paints a rich portrait of the men, their families, and the ruling of the Roman Empire.I loved it, particularly because he did such a wonderful job of taking us behind the names to the characters of men such as Trajan, Hadrian, and Diocletian.

Although the book has ten emperors as its focus, the author did not neglect the continuing question of succession and the men who came between. That helped put the group into better focus as well.

I also liked that he didn't pull punches in describing these men, their characters, and the reigns. He gives us both their good points and their bad, giving us balanced assessments of each.

It's a wonderful and well-written way to learn the history of the Roman Empire.

Very interesting and intriguing read. I enjoyed the writing style. This book was written with so much detail. It was exciting and adventurous.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own