Pax continues Tom Holland's acclaimed popular history of Rome, covering the period from 69 AD to 138 AD—from the chaos of the Year of the Four Emperors through the consolidation of imperial rule under the Flavians and the 'Five Good Emperors.' Holland, who previously chronicled the fall of the Republic in Rubicon and the rise of Christianity in Dominion, brings his characteristic narrative energy to this tumultuous century. The book opens with the civil war following Nero's suicide, when Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian competed for the purple, and traces how the Flavians rebuilt stability from chaos. Holland follows the empire's expansion to its greatest extent under Trajan, the philosophical rule of Hadrian, and the cultural flourishing that made this period the height of Roman power. He is attentive to the perspectives of those beyond the Roman elite—Jews, Greeks, Britons, and others incorporated into imperial structures—and to the religious transformations underway in the empire's eastern provinces. For readers who enjoy sweeping historical narrative that brings the ancient world vividly to life, Holland's work provides both entertainment and insight into an era that shaped subsequent Western civilization.