Successor

Politics, prestige, power - monster, angel, emperor.Tiberius' unique position as the unrivaled leader of the ancient Roman Empire has not prevented him from being pushed to the sidelines of historical interest. In The Successor, Willemijn van Dijk seeks to remedy this relegation in her compelling portrait of a complicated ancient ruler.Tiberius inherited power from the legendary Augustus as the Roman Empire's first successor. His influence stretched from northern Africa to the southern Netherlands and from Spain to Syria. Yet despite its many challenges, this vast area would not remain unmanaged for long. In his twenty-three-year reign as emperor, Tiberius consolidated power in the new form of government his adoptive father had founded, and in doing so he established the Julio-Claudian dynasty, a line that would rule Rome for half a century.The story of Tiberius is one of intrigue. Van Dijk draws readers onto backstreets and into back rooms, bringing Rome to life with vivid portrayals of what it was like to stand on the great Palatine Hill or by the banks of the Tiber. Against this vibrant urban tapestry, van Dijk weaves together the gripping narrative of Tiberius' rise - a complicated game of power, politics, and conspiracy. Van Dijk strips away the varnish of myth to paint an accurate, incisive picture of a man who at the late age of fifty-five became the greatest commander-in-chief of his day.Vivid, scandalous, and thought-provoking, The Successor tells the story of a somber man - a figure neither wholly sympathetic nor entirely repulsive - who became an emperor, and of an emperor who became a tyrant.

Writing with a historian's respect for the sources and a novelist's talent for drama, Dijk offers an engrossing account of one of the most fascinating Roman emperors.--M.J. Johnson "Choice"

Willemijn van Dijk is a Dutch ancient historian and author. She holds her graduate degree in Classics and Ancient Civilizations from the VU University of Amsterdam and is also the author of Via Roma: The History of Rome in Fifty Streets.A native of New York, Kathleen Brandt-Carey studied at Saint Lawrence University and the University of Amsterdam and has written numerous textbooks and a biography. She lives in the Netherlands.