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Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World
Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World | Mary Beard
4 posts | 6 read | 2 to read
In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome, from its slightly shabby Iron Age origins to its reign as the undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean. Now, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and taking us through the nearly three centuries--and some thirty emperors--that separate him from the boy-king Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE).Yet Emperor of Rome is not your typical chronological account of Roman rulers, one emperor after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Instead, Beard asks different, often larger and more probing questions: What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? What kind of jokes did Augustus tell? And for that matter, what really happened, for example, between the emperor Hadrian and his beloved Antinous? Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard tracks the emperor down at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven.Along the way, Beard explores Roman fictions of imperial power, overturning many of the assumptions that we hold as gospel, not the least of them the perception that emperors one and all were orchestrators of extreme brutality and cruelty. Here Beard introduces us to the emperor's wives and lovers, rivals and slaves, court jesters and soldiers, and the ordinary people who pressed begging letters into his hand--whose chamber pot disputes were adjudicated by Augustus, and whose budgets were approved by Vespasian, himself the son of a tax collector.With its finely nuanced portrayal of sex, class, and politics, Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman fantasies (and our own) about what it was to be Roman at its richest, most luxurious, most extreme, most powerful, and most deadly, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.
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Berryfan
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Mary Beard is the greatest living scholar on Ancient Rome. This book is yet another triumph. She delves deep into the day-to-day lives of the emperor but is clear that there are great limitations on the available information. She does a great job of explaining how the assessment of each ruler is so dependent on the attitude of the successor. As well as exploring the grave limitations of our available sources.

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Abailliekaras
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Mary Beard brings to life the Roman emperors in this fascinating study of their daily lives, homes & customs. She has a rich knowledge of this period to draw from &, following SPQR, this is an attempt to look at the emperors & their subjects as real people rather than a dry history. I don‘t know enough about the era so found it confusing switching between emperors as it‘s told as a series of anecdotes. But history buffs will enjoy this fresh take.

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AnneCecilie
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This is not a chronological account of the different emperors from Octavian 44 BCE until Alexander Severus death 235 CE. This is a look at what it meant to be an emperor, what where your responsibilities, what recognized a good emperor, how was the household run and all your employees. It also looks at the women close to the emperor like mother and wife. It closes of with a look at how some of the emperors where turned into goods after their death

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RamsFan1963
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109/150 In my opinion, no one writes about Rome and Roman history better than Mary Beard. Informative, enlightening and very detailed. If the reader is looking for a gossipy, lurid book, full of orgies and sadistic violence, then they've come to the wrong place. Beard brings us into the day to day life of the emperors, not always exciting, every day wasn't full of assassinations, palace intrigues and romantic rendezvous. ⬇️⬇️

RamsFan1963 They had to do the boring parts of governing too, doing the paperwork, attending committees, listening to the grievances of the commoners, and finding the finances for their building projects and military campaigns. 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 13mo
Read4life 🍁👻🎃 13mo
See All 8 Comments
GondorGirl I preordered a signed copy of this (which might be the nerdiest thing I've done this year), but haven't had the chance to read it yet. I'm really looking forward to it! 13mo
DieAReader 🥳🥳🥳 13mo
RamsFan1963 @GondorGirl I rarely preorder books, but I did preorder this on Audible so that I would receive it on my birthday. It was my gift to myself 13mo
TheSpineView Fantastic! 13mo
Andrew65 Excellent 👏👏👏 12mo
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