Tom Holland Meets Armando Iannucci — What The Lives of the Caesars Can Teach Us About Politics

In this captivating live conversation hosted by the How To Academy Podcast, bestselling historian Tom Holland meets satirical genius Armando Iannucci to explore Suetonius' controversial and vividly detailed 'Lives of the Caesars.' The discussion delves into how this ancient Roman text—filled with scandalous anecdotes about emperors' private lives, sexual habits, and supernatural portents—offers profound insights into modern politics. From Julius Caesar’s ambition and assassination to Augustus’s masterful manipulation of power, and the descent into tyranny under Caligula and Nero, the conversation reveals how the Roman Empire’s collapse wasn’t inevitable but the result of political exhaustion, personal ambition, and the erosion of republican norms. Iannucci and Holland draw striking parallels between ancient Rome and today’s world, particularly in the use of humiliation, propaganda, and the cult of personality—echoing figures like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. They also reflect on the enduring human fascination with history, the power of narrative, and the dangers of conspiracy thinking in an age of misinformation. The episode closes with a poignant reminder that history is not a moral lesson but a mirror showing the vast, often shocking, diversity of human experience across time.