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leifalreadyexists 's review for:
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
by Mary Beard
Mary Beard knows how to placate the keeners, rile up the crowd of old boys (or those who refer to her as "Mary" where they would never dream of referring to a male classicist as, say, "Dave"), and speak directly to the general audience. Her history of the first phases of Rome are pacy enough to keep the reader interested and extended enough to provide a good foundation for whatever her chosen subject may be. I found it really only sprung into life around the second half of the book with Augustus and the 12 emperors following, with Beard's focus on the "people" of Rome really only possible in the last chapters. Earlier chapters are dutiful enough but suffer from a bit of dust around the edges. In any case, there's a lot here for the interested crowd - if you're patient enough to spend time with a five hundred page book!