Tom Holland reviews in 'Pax' the period of splendor of Rome from Nero to Hadrian. Holland tells the terrible fate of the mutilated Sporo, forced to replace the deceased empress Poppaea Sabina.

The young man, castrated and cross-dressed by the Roman Caesars, was called Sporo. Holland explains in a terrible version of the story of the Alelati daughter of Rome, Sporo-Popea was a living doll, symbolized of imperial power.