Charting the rise and fall of Roman power over 500 years through the public and private lives of six of the Empire's rulers, this book focuses in turn on Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Hadrian, Constantine and Justinian. It tells a story of battles, bribery, brilliance and back-stabbing, both literal and figurative. The lives of these six rulers exemplify the most sophisticated heights and the cruellest lows of the Roman Empire's inception, heyday and decline. The book incorporates military campaigns, architecture and political machinations, and is illustrated with photographs and computer-generated reconstructions of what Roman buildings would have looked like at the time.