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krismichaud 's review for:
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
by Mary Beard
informative
reflective
slow-paced
It’s become a cliché to ask somebody (usually male) how often they think about “ancient Rome.”I daydream about it often, but knew little aside from the highlights.
I figured this book would be a good introduction to Rome’s first millennium — roughly, from its founding until the deathbed baptism of its first Christian Emperor. There is a lot of ground to cover, and no slim volume can do it all, but SPQR provides an historical overview and points the way toward more detailed (and hopefully more exciting) readings on “great men” like Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cicero, Augustus and others.
SPQR is not a page-turner. Mary Beard’s text comes most alive when discussing private letters, obscene graffiti and the archaeological treasures found in classical latrines. My takeaway is that the Romans — even the “great” ones — were just guys (and gals) like us.
Divine trumpets did not sound when Caesar crossed the Rubicon (a humble stream or brook, in Beard’s telling), any more than the Olympian Gods struggled in the heavens with Jesus Christ for the immortal soul of Constantine. Instead, flawed human beings, motivated by familiar impulses, lived, loved, struggled and died. “Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.”
I figured this book would be a good introduction to Rome’s first millennium — roughly, from its founding until the deathbed baptism of its first Christian Emperor. There is a lot of ground to cover, and no slim volume can do it all, but SPQR provides an historical overview and points the way toward more detailed (and hopefully more exciting) readings on “great men” like Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cicero, Augustus and others.
SPQR is not a page-turner. Mary Beard’s text comes most alive when discussing private letters, obscene graffiti and the archaeological treasures found in classical latrines. My takeaway is that the Romans — even the “great” ones — were just guys (and gals) like us.
Divine trumpets did not sound when Caesar crossed the Rubicon (a humble stream or brook, in Beard’s telling), any more than the Olympian Gods struggled in the heavens with Jesus Christ for the immortal soul of Constantine. Instead, flawed human beings, motivated by familiar impulses, lived, loved, struggled and died. “Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.”