In 49BC, Caesar crossed the Rubicon and Rome fell into a brutal civil war. The institutions that gave its people a voice crumbled and, after the dust settled, Rome was forevermore ruled by emperors.

But Rome didn’t fall in a day. For centuries, its people had taken pride in the fact that they had overthrown their king and vowed that they would never have another. So why did the Romans give up their freedom? After the violent assassination of Caesar, why wasn’t the Republic restored? And why did those fighting for democracy lose the battle? Was it simply that, as the Roman poet Juvenal wrote, the people only cared about bread and circuses?

Jessica Clarke takes us right into the heart of the wars, back-stabbings, uprisings and creeping normalisation of propaganda and disinformation that fractured the Republic. Lifting the veil on the political machinations of a series of ruthlessly ambitious oligarchs, Circus is a page-turning exploration of the spectacular culture and theatrical politics of the final battle for the Roman Republic.