Mary Beard

A sweeping, revisionisthistory of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists."

SPQR - A History of Ancient Rome

Elda Mengisto

When I started reading this book, I assumed that it would be one mentioning all the big figures of the Roman Empire, along with the power moves which lead to its rise and downfall. The first surprise I got was the end date, which ended at 212 CE with every free inhabitant becoming a Roman citizen. It felt arbitrary for me, because I knew what was going to happen after that.

Yet everything inside this book provided the context for that very point. Beard starts off with the Catiline vs Cicero rivalry six hundred years after the foundations of Rome. What she calls "a clash between men of very different backgrounds....[standing] at, or very near, the top of Roman politics" (27) provided a prologue of sorts, in that it would set the stage for how this obscure town evolved into the center of the Mediterranean world.

Honestly, I found most of the book good, albeit one that drags on a little bit. While Beard provides a lot of information on the empire in a solid narrative, I get overwhelmed with the amount of detail she puts in. Sometimes, I find myself bored by it.

Yet there were some good chapters--I enjoyed looking into the day-to-day life of Romans through "The Home Front" and "The Haves and the Have Nots". The last chapter on "Rome Outside of Rome" also does a good job in detailing Rome's relations with minorities, which transitions well into the epilogue.

I enjoyed the book, but look forward to reading it again to absorb the story.

SPQR - A History of Ancient Rome

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