Dying Every Day ─ Seneca at the Court of Nero

From acclaimed classical historian and author of Ghost on the Throne ("Gripping…the narrative verve of a born writer and the erudition of a scholar"-Daniel Mendelsohn) and The Landmark Arrian ("Thrilling"-The New York Times Book Review)-a work of history on the grand scale: a high stakes drama full of murder, madness, tyranny, and perversion.

At the center: the tumultuous life of Seneca, ancient Rome's preeminent writer and philosopher, and his student Nero, Emperor of Rome. And controlling them both, Nero's mother, Julia Agrippina the Younger: Roman empress, great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, sister of the Emperor Caligula, niece, and fourth wife, of Emperor Claudius…Dying Every Day weaves together the life and written words, the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that enmeshed Seneca the Younger in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, the last and most detestable of the Caesarean family, whose descent into madness saw five family murders, the revolt of Boudicca in England, the Fire of Rome, and a savage purge that destroyed Rome's supreme minds during the Senate's golden age.

JAMES ROMM is the James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics at Bard College. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. His books on the ancient world include Ghost On The Throne, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought, Herodotus, and The Landmark Arrian.