SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome - Hardcover

Beard, Professor Mary

4.05

63,559 ratings by Goodreads

9781846683800: SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846683807 ISBN 13: 9781846683800

Publisher: Profile Books, 2015

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller

Shortlisted for a British Book Industry Book of the Year Award 2016

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'.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Masterful ... This is exemplary popular history, engaging but never dumbed down, providing both the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life (The Economist)

Ground-breaking ... invigorating ... revolutionary ... a whole new approach to ancient history (Thomas Hodgkinson Spectator)

Fast-moving, exciting, psychologically acute, warmly sceptical (Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times)

Vastly engaging ... a tremendously enjoyable and scholarly read (Natalie Haynes Observer)

Sustaining the energy that such a topic demands for more than 600 pages, while providing a coherent answer to the question of why Rome expanded so spectacularly, is hugely ambitious. Beard succeeds triumphantly (Peter Heather Sunday Times)

Masterful...Structures and institutions are the dominant concern in Beard's compelling analysis but it is constantly enlivened by gripping episodes...a subtle and engaging interrogation of the complex and contradictory textual and material traces of the Roman world. (Catharine Edwards The Guardian 2015-10-28)

An accomplished scholar and lively debunker...Beard informs and entertains without ever patronising her readers. What she touches turns to light ... SPQR is pacy, weighty, relevant and iconoclastic. Who knew classics could be so enthralling? Lucky are the students of Mary Beard. (Yasmin Alibhai Brown Independent)

Always alive to the contemporary relevance of its subject...a refreshing rethink of a very old topic (Shadi Bartsch FT)

Beard guides you on an enthralling journey through the Roman world. However well you think you know the country, she gives different views, new aspects...Even those who know a lot about Rome will learn more, and find themselves questioning much of which they were previously certain. SPQR does what history should do. (Allan Massie Scotsman)

Praise for Mary Beard:

'She's pulled off that rare trick of becoming a don with a high media profile who hasn't sold out, who is absolutely respected by the academy for her scholarship ... what she says is always powerful and interesting

(The Guardian)

From the Author:

Winifred Mary Beard (born 1 January 1955) is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and is a fellow of Newnham College. She is the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and author of the blog "A Don's Life", which appears on The Times as a regular column. Her frequent media appearances and sometimes controversial public statements have led to her being described as "Britain's best-known classicist".

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.