Hailed by critics as animating 'the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life' (Economist) in a way that makes 'your hair stand on end' (Christian Science Monitor) and spanning nearly a thousand years of history, this 'highly informative, highly readable' (Dallas Morning News) work examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries. In SPQR, an instant classic, Mary Beard narrates the history of Rome 'with passion and without technical jargon' and demonstrates how 'a slightly shabby Iron Age village' rose to become the 'undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean' (Wall Street Journal). If the Romans believed their city had started with Romulus and Remus, with the rape of the Sabine women – in a welter, in other words, of fratricide and sexual violence – what can we learn about the tellers’ concerns, their preoccupations, their beliefs? According to Greg Woolf, “One of the things Mary has taught is to look at the window, not through it, because there isn’t really anything behind it.New York Times Bestseller - National Book Critics Circle Finalist - Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2015 - Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2015 - Economist Books of the Year 2015 - New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2015 A sweeping, 'magisterial' history of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists shows why Rome remains 'relevant to people many centuries later' (Atlantic). Instead Beard asked not how much truth could be excavated from the Romans’ stories about their deep past, but what it might mean that they told them. One way of handling this material might have been simply to have started later, when the historian’s footing among the sources becomes more secure. The whole story slides frustratingly away into legend, with the later Romans just as confused as we are about how an unremarkable town on a malarial swamp came to rule a vast empire.

There are few, if any, contemporary sources. The early history of Rome, the era of its fabled seven kings, is notoriously difficult to untangle.

Foreign Policy & International Relations.

Spqr a history of ancient rome review