📖 peek insideSPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
by Mary Beard
Renowned classicist Mary Beard provides a definitive history of ancient Rome, covering its first millennium from a small village to a global superpower. Beard moves beyond the familiar tales of emperors and battles to explore the lives of ordinary Romans, including women, slaves, and the poor. She examines how the Romans thought about themselves, their empire, and the concepts of citizenship and liberty. SPQR is a masterful blend of rigorous scholarship and engaging storytelling, making the complexities of Roman history accessible and relevant to contemporary readers.
A popular book with millions of readers worldwide.
Notable Quotes
"It is a dangerous myth that we are better historians than our predecessors. We are not."
"If the assassination of Julius Caesar became a model for the effective removal of a tyrant, it was also a powerful reminder that getting rid of a tyrant did not necessarily dispose of tyranny."
"Caesar quoted in Greek two words from the Athenian comic playwright Menander: literally, in a phrase borrowed from gambling, ‘Let the dice be thrown.’ Despite the usual English translation – ‘The die is cast’, which again appears to hint at the irrevocable step being taken – Caesar’s Greek was much more an expression of uncertainty, a sense that everything now was in the lap of the gods. Let’s throw the dice in the air and see where they will fall! Who knows what will happen next?"
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