Blood of the Caesars: How the Murder of Germanicus Led to the Fall of Rome

Unraveling a Murder Mystery That Changed History

Could the killing of a single great leader while the Roman Empire was still in its infancy have been the root cause of the empire's collapse more than four centuries later? Perhaps, but only if that leader were the grandson of Mark Antony, the adopted son of the emperor Tiberius, handpicked by Augustus to become the third emperor, as well as the father of Caligula and the grandfather of Nero.

Germanicus Julius Caesar was all of the above. He was also a brilliant general, a master politician, and the most beloved man in the empire. This brilliant investigation of his death and its aftermath is both a compelling, thought-provoking history and a first-class murder mystery with a plot twist Agatha Christie would envy.

STEPHEN DANDO-COLLINS is the author of Caesar’s Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar’s Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome, Nero’s Killing Machine: The True Story of Rome’s Remarkable Fourteenth Legion, Cleopatra’s Kidnappers: How Caesar’s Sixth Legion Gave Egypt to Rome and Rome to Caesar, and Mark Antony’s Heroes: How the Third Gallica Legion Saved an Apostle and Created an Emperor. He is an Australian-born researcher, editor, and author who has spent the last three decades identifying and studying the individual legions of the Roman army of the late Republic and the empire of the Caesars.