Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age cover art

Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age

By: Tom Holland
Narrated by: Tom Holland
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

 THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'Holland, who co-hosts the podcast The Rest Is History, is at his best when having fun with Rome's bloody history' The Times

'A book for lovers of traditional, grand sweep narrative history' Sunday Times

The 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.©2023 Tom Holland (P)2023 Hachette Audio UK Ancient Rome Ancient History Italy Mythology Ancient Greece

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Eagle and the Lion cover art
A Distant Mirror cover art
Hero of Two Worlds cover art
At the Gates of Rome cover art
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
The Flavian Dynasty cover art
Resistance Women cover art
The Sacred Band cover art
Agricola and Germania cover art
Eagles at War cover art
Crassus cover art
Twilight Cities cover art
In Search of a Kingdom cover art
The Byzantine Empire cover art
Nero cover art

Critic reviews

A sweeping, colourful history of Rome at its swaggering, superpower zenith by The Rest is History podcaster and bestselling author. Hail Caesar! Hail Tom Holland! (Robbie Millen)
All stars
Most relevant
Loved it for its portrayal of a history in an entertaining format. A reading by an author is always a treat.

Assessable history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully written, captivating and informative without pretension, it’s a story which is impossibly addictive. Thank you

If I could give it a rating of 10 I would

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having read his two earlier books on Rome and greatly enjoyed both I was greatly looking forward to PAX. It was well worth the wait. I could hardly stop listening. superb

superb

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I missed more analysis and conclusion rather than events and verbal pirouettes. Overuse of words such as fabric, convulsions, and sheer. The incorrect pronounciation of princeps was rather annoying. A professional reader could have probably made it better.

What does it all mean?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Superb retelling of the demise of Nero, the year of the four emperors and the Flavian dynasty. I'm familiar with Christian history and it's excellent to hear the Roman history described, knowing that the early Church was interacting with and in this morally ambiguous and cruel empire. Fascinating stuff. Brilliant treatment of the fall of Jerusalem and how it propped up the Emperor via propaganda. I enjoyed this having previously read Domininon, and it was well worth it.

Rome with all its moral ambiguities brought to life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews