Tom Holland interview: Caligula, vampires and coping with death threats

The bestselling historian talks Islam, Twitter storms and the lurid world of the Roman empire

Tom Holland is, excitably, showing me his latest acquisition, in his high-ceilinged study in south London. Ten shelves of books soar up above us, from tomes on sexual practice in the ancient world to Fred Donner’s Narratives of Islamic Origins. Above his desk is a reproduction of a lovely 15th-century fresco of the young Cicero reading, and laid here and there are reproduction military helmets (one, in the Roman style, elaborately plumed), a shield and a cricket bat. The last relates to Holland’s second obsession, aside from history: he is an ardent member of the Authors XI, and is much pained to have missed a recent match against the Thespian Thunderers.

The new toy, which he fetches from a tiny vitrine occupied by pottery shards and other small treasures, is a gold coin minted in Rome, aglint with the unmistakably cherubic cheeks of the emperor Nero. “It’s rather an expensive hobby,” he says, a little guiltily. Nero is, perhaps, the most colourful character in his latest book, Dynasty – a thrilling account of the rise and fall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. It is in a sense the sequel to Rubicon, his bestselling book on the collapse of the Roman republic published in 2003, a sequel long delayed by other projects – books on late antique and medieval history, an account of the Persian wars, and a translation of Herodotus’s Histories.

Continue reading...