一位是军事天才、一位谋杀了自己的母亲，在罗马倒塌的时候袖手旁观。其中六位被暗杀、两位自杀、五位被捧成神的地位。这就是12名凯撒：Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus以及Domitian。在他們的统治之下，罗马从一个共和国变成一个帝国，而他們所创造的帝王独裁统治模式在西方国家存活了超过一千年。

在这本书中，作者Matthew Dennison呈现了这12个人的不同历史及角色，同时带着读者进入罗马帝国当时的奢华、残酷以及先进。在罗马帝国最高峰的时期，我們透过这12名男人的人生与命运看到这座城市的故事。

好评：

Unputdownable... These histories from 2,000 years ago are riveting in their insight, their black humour and their sheer readability, give or take a few highbrow verbal flourishes. Matthew Dennison fleshes out their gaudy history with boisterous scholarship. ― Daily Mail

Dennison's series of impressionistic pen portraits are compelling and imaginative. ― Sunday Times

Matthew Dennison is one of those rare marvels, a historical biographer whose work has reached the bestseller lists... Each story is told with humour and personal interpretations of the facts. Then there's the glory of the language: Dennison is in love with the English language, and it shows. ― Independent

The author's prose style - epigrammatic, swift, and spiced with humour - is like Tacitus in translation. Which is meant as a compliment. His relish for his material shines infectiously through his sentences. -- Thomas Hodgkinson ― Spectator

Dennison's approach combines thoughtful reflection and analysis with gossipy irreverence in a bewitching cocktail... hugely entertaining. ― Daily Express

Gossipy and insightful, making for an enjoyable introduction to this power-hungry crowd ― Financial Times

关于作者：

Matthew Dennison写过许多本人物传记的书，包括The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter以及Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia。他是一位记者，是Country Life、The Times、Telegraph Magazine以及The Daily Express的常规贡献者。