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julies_reading 's review for:
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
by Mary Beard
Covering the mythic founding of Rome through around 200 CE when Caracalla granted citizenship to everyone in the Roman Empire, Mary Beard spans the centuries of the city of Rome, discussing its impact and the lives of its people.
If you don't know me well, I'm a big Latin nerd. I've loved Greco-Roman mythology since I was around 7. I took 4 years of Latin in high school, which also doubled as a history class. I visited Rome a couple of years ago. The more I learn about ancient history, the deeper I want to dive.
This book covers a lot. It's basically a crash course in the Roman Empire because it has to talk about hundreds of years of complex history and how we know about it in less than 600 pages. I understand why this is becoming a definitive text (they literally sell this in gift shops in Rome); it's a great way to introduce somebody to the Roman Empire. For the most part, I think this was organized well. I liked that this did decide to cover the 99% of Romans, the people we have the least information about since their words didn't get passed down. That's always the most interesting bit to me. Who would have thought they had takeout in ancient times? However, reading this at my typical fiction speed was a mistake, so I really hurt my reading experience by trying to do that.
This gave me a lot of information on Rome the Empire over Rome the Republic (the latter of which is what is taught in my state's curriculum) and has made me more interested in picking up more nonfiction about ancient history. I think I've learned from this, however, that I'd probably prefer something that covers a smaller era in depth.
If you don't know me well, I'm a big Latin nerd. I've loved Greco-Roman mythology since I was around 7. I took 4 years of Latin in high school, which also doubled as a history class. I visited Rome a couple of years ago. The more I learn about ancient history, the deeper I want to dive.
This book covers a lot. It's basically a crash course in the Roman Empire because it has to talk about hundreds of years of complex history and how we know about it in less than 600 pages. I understand why this is becoming a definitive text (they literally sell this in gift shops in Rome); it's a great way to introduce somebody to the Roman Empire. For the most part, I think this was organized well. I liked that this did decide to cover the 99% of Romans, the people we have the least information about since their words didn't get passed down. That's always the most interesting bit to me. Who would have thought they had takeout in ancient times? However, reading this at my typical fiction speed was a mistake, so I really hurt my reading experience by trying to do that.
This gave me a lot of information on Rome the Empire over Rome the Republic (the latter of which is what is taught in my state's curriculum) and has made me more interested in picking up more nonfiction about ancient history. I think I've learned from this, however, that I'd probably prefer something that covers a smaller era in depth.