The Emperors of Rome by David Stone Potter

In 27 BC, after the civil war that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar, Octavian was proclaimed emperor by the Roman Senate and given the title 'Augustus'. "Emperors of Rome" charts the 500 years that followed the death of Caesar and eventual triumph of Augustus, an era during which Rome reached heights of economic prosperity and cultural achievement, but also plumbed depths of anarchy, cruelty and chaos.