SPQR
A History of Ancient Rome
Mary Beard, 2015
608 pages
Read in 2026.06
Check the synopsis and details on amazon.com
🔽 Summary and quick note 🔽
✔ From the beginning of Ancient Rome to about 200 CE, thus Rome's "first millennium"
✔ Mary Beard appears on BBC and podcasts, and this book has the same tone; witty
✔ Tells us not only about emperors and laws, but also regular citizen and poor residents. Fun and fascinating
★★★★★ My first time ever reading and studying about Ancient Rome, and I wanted it to be SPQR. The book tells the history like a story, or stories. It's funny but the Italians haven't changed that drastically in the last 2000 years. Fun read with fascinating bits. a great introduction to Ancient Rome.
🔽 Book review 🔽
My first time ever reading and studying about Ancient Rome, and I wanted it to be SPQR.
This is a great introduction, from the beginning of Rome to about 200 CE, thus Rome's "first millennium".
The only thing is, it'd have been better if I had basic of the basic knowledge, like studying it a bit even at high school... but I didn't and not much I can do.
The book tells the history like a story, or stories.
Rather than focusing only on the big history, like Emperor and the laws, the author goes a bit deeper into what the regular, or poor, Romans were like despite the limited resources (obviously normal people don't leave much record)
Being British, the author's writing is humorous.
I've seen her and heard her on TV and podcast so I was glad that the tone of this book is the same; witty.
She takes things lightly when they should be, like when these Romans left graffiti, or they love dumping excrement on people they hate - which they did very often, apparently.
I've lived in Italy for more than 10 years in total now, and it's funny but the Italians haven't changed that drastically in the last 2000 years.
They still leave graffiti, they still make satirical jokes about the rich (without excrements) and they still learn at school to be masters of speeches.
Whoever can speak more eloquently will get to the higher place, in both Ancient and contemporary Rome.
Also I love the fact that much of earlier Ancient Rome is not certain, not because there's no record but because the historians of the later Empire exaggerated a bit too much to give themselves a grand past. Love it.
I've definitely learned about how the Rome worked, how Rome outside of Rome worked (quite a bit on England), how dramatic the rulers were, and what the empire was all about.
After all, they were, and we are, so human.
🔽 Related pages 🔽
🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽
●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
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