As Tom Holland’s Rubicon and Persian Fire thrillingly demonstrate, the most enjoyable history tells a story, and the Roman historian and politician Tacitus (c AD 56–120), who in his time served as both consul and provincial governor, had no better material with which to start his Histories than the dramatic events that unfolded during the year AD 69, which saw three changes of emperor as various claimants battled it out to succeed the wretched Nero. 

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