Tom Holland on Pax

Please note, this is now taking place on Christ Church on Julian Road.

This September, Tom Holland, The Rest is History podcaster and bestselling author, brings to life a sweeping, colourful history of Rome at its swaggering, superpower zenith.

Tom is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, whose bestselling books include Rubicon; Persian Fire; and Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind. He has previously adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded to 'the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome'.

Now, he returns with this definitive history of Rome's golden age - antiquity's ultimate superpower at the pinnacle of its greatness.

The Pax Romana has long been revered as a golden age. At its peak, the Roman Empire stretched from Scotland to Arabia, and contained perhaps a quarter of humanity. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state the world had yet seen.

Beginning in 69AD, a year that saw four Caesars in succession rule the empire, and ending some seven decades later with the death of Hadrian, Pax presents a dazzling history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland portrays the Roman Empire in all its predatory glory. Vivid scene follows vivid scene: the destruction of Jerusalem and Pompeii, the building of the Colosseum and Hadrian's Wall, the conquests of Trajan. Vividly sketching the lives of Romans both ordinary and spectacular, from slaves to emperors, Holland demonstrates how Roman peace was the fruit of unprecedented military violence.

A stunning portrait of Rome's glory days, this is the epic history of the pax Romana.