Inside Cover Blurb
- Ancient Rome matters. Its history of empire, conquest, cruelty and excess is something against which we still judge ourselves. Its myths and stories - from Romulus and Remus to the Rape of Lucretia - still strike a chord with us. And its debates about citizenship, security and the rights of the individual still influence our own debates on civil liberty today.
- SPQR is a new look at Roman history from one of the world's foremost classicists. It explores not only how Rome grew from an insignificant village in central Italy to a power that controlled territory from Spain to Syria, but also how the Romans thought about themselves and their achievements, and why they are still important to us.
- Covering 1,000 years of history, and casting fresh light on the basics of Roman culture from slavery to running water, as well as exploring democracy, migration, religious controversy, social mobility and exploitation in the larger context of the empire, this is a definitive history of ancient Rome.
- SPQR is the Romans' own abbreviation for their state: Senatus Populusque Romanus, 'the Senate and People of Rome'.
Amazon Customer Review
- Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the Classics editor of the TLS and a regular on Question Time. As a Fellow of the BA and the AAA&S she is acclaimed in her field. Her previous books that include: "Beard (Mary) - Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town", 'Confronting the Classics'; The Roman Triumph' ; and 'The Parthenon', were bestsellers.
- Her latest book deals with the history of Rome. There are chapters on: Cicero, the Roman Kings, the Empire, Alexander the Great, Augustus and Rome outside Rome. The book includes, maps, illustrations, a timeline and further reading. .it is clear from this book as well as her previous ones that Professor Beard is in love with her subject. I am reliably informed it is a joy to be taught by her.
- Her delightful account disposes of several long standing myths for example, that the Romans were uniquely militaristic. They weren't. The ancient Mediterranean was awash with force. It is good also to read that she deplores the common tendency to judge the rulers by focusing on their character. All were at times rather nasty. The Romans were nasty like everyone else. She scotches the view that the Greeks were highly cultured while the Romans were efficient but not very nice. The Romans were not uncultured. Also the picture painted of, say, Caligula has been much exaggerated. Her piece on Augustus, the first Emperor, is balanced and avoids depicting him, as many do, as a fountain of virtue. In fact, he was a very nasty man particularly when young. He disposed of people, including friends, without hesitation. He formed a triumvirate which murdered hundreds of Romans. He never succeeded in solving the problem of succession. Unfortunately for him, he had no male children. TV dramatisations are very misleading. Beard is insistent that you cannot understand the Roman empire if you try to do so by studying individuals. She says the Romans, like everyone else, were nasty thugs and we need to understand this if wish to understand them.
- The title of her book is taken from the Roman catchphrase, Senatus PopulusQue Romanus, the Senate and People of Rome. At the heart of the mammoth task she has set herself is a desire to find out how a tiny little village in central Italy became a dominant power over vast amounts of land in three continents. It is about the growth of Rome and how it remained so dominant for so long. It is not, she stresses, about its fall. She doubts it ever did in Gibbon's sense. Her book instead closes in 212 CE when Emperor Caracalla made every single free inhabitant of the Empire a full Roman citizen. In so doing, he completed a process that had begun a thousand years earlier. Mary makes it clear that while she is very, very interested in the classical world this does not mean she is full of admiration for it. She bridles for instance at hearing the term 'great Roman'.
- Because of this we are treated to a rare examination of the myths and half-truths about Rome that we inflict on our young and sometimes on our students. For example, the author says the Romans did not have a great plan of world conquest, they did not brutally treat the innocent, although she accepts that Caesar's conquest of Gaul was close to genocide. She points out that the enemies of Rome were themselves very militaristic. They inhabited a very violent world in which the sword outdid the ploughshare. She is scathing about the many accounts that depict Greece as a haven of democracy and intellectual pursuits while Rome was a thuggish military entity.
- In writing this book Beard has taken on a huge challenge for there is no single story of Rome. She has had to cope with the painstaking task of building a story using only tiny bits of evidence such as pottery or letters written on stone. For many years of Rome's growth there are no contemporary written accounts. Reconstruction is essential. Centuries later, the problem is an over-abundance of contemporary evidence, not all of which is trustworthy. She rightly mentions the difficult problem of trying to imagine life in Rome from the 21st century. The territory you are researching is alien. Hence, it is horrendously difficult if not impossible to imagine a time of slavery, the murder of family members, filth in the streets - there are no bins - slaughter in the arena, early death from numerous untreatable diseases, unwanted babies thrown on to heaps of rubbish, child brides and eunuch priests..
- The book begins in the middle of the first century BCE, some 600 years after Rome was founded. The year is 63 BCE. It grips from the beginning and never lets up as Beard takes us on a journey that sees a small village become a formidable power feared by all. Although some of the story is familiar it is examined and explained here with much originality. She reveals details about women, food, property, the poor, culture and the Empire that are fascinating. Also, as said earlier, on the way she debunks many myths about, for example, the original inhabitants of village Rome, finance, and the assassination of Caesar. Reading Shakespeare's version will never be the same again. Augustus made a pilgrimage to Egypt to see Alexander the Great's grave. Read what happens to his hero's nose. Beard also disagrees with long held views about Nero and Caligula. She believes Catiline has been much maligned by Cicero. Beard is never less than entertaining.
- She shows that Roman culture and politics still underlie much of what we do. Some of our key issues can be traced back to ancient Rome, for example civil liberties. She is extremely keen to find answers to numerous things about the Roman world. For example, what role women played; all the small things about everyday life.
- This is a superb account of a fascinating time in history related with insight, wit and original analysis. It is a delight to read. Any student of A level Classical Civilisation, and undergraduates studying the same historical period would do well to read it. The general reader will also enjoy a wonderful story.
Book Comment
Profile Books (20 Oct. 2015)
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