Table of Contents

The Nobilitas ; The hazards of life; Nobiles in eclipse; Sixteen aristocratic generals; Monarchy and concord; Some perturbations; Stability restored; The resplendent Aemilii; The end of L. Aemilius Paullus; Marcus Lepidus; Two nieces of Augustus; Nero's aunts; Princesses and court ladies; The Junii Silani; Messalla Corvinus; The decease of Messalla; The posterity of Messalla; The last Scipiones; Descendants of Pompeius and Sulla;
Descendants of Crassus; Lentulus the Augur; Kinsmen of Seianus; Quinctilius Varus; Piso the Pontifex; The education of an aristocrat; The other pisones; Nobiles in Horace; Fabius Maximus; Nobiles in Velleius;
The Apologia for the principate; Appendix: The Consuls, 80 BC-AD 14; Index of persons; Geneological tables

Reviews

'Syme is masterful. His capacity to wring information about parentage, career, and office from the driest fragmentary inscription and marry it with other material is legendary.' The Times
'This is a book to incite wonder ... no general reader with the least enthusiasm for political history of any age could fail to find it compelling.' Times Literary Supplement
'This book belongs to the rarest of categories: books that one wishes were longer and whose end is approached with a grudging reluctance.' Sunday Telegraph
'Between the seemingly abrupt sentences runs a current of feeling generated by Syme's profound understanding of the ironies of political history.' Thomas D'Evelyn The Christian Science Monitor