Publishers Weekly
★ 10/02/2023
Cambridge University classicist Beard (SPQR) provides a captivating examination of the social lives of the Roman emperors, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and ending with Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Covering almost three centuries and close to 30 emperors, Beard explores the day-to-day practicalities and pastimes of imperial rule. She highlights the “fraught relations” between emperors and senators, who did not take well to Rome’s transformation from republic to autocratic empire; takes readers on a tour of the emperors’ public works (including the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum); and recreates their palaces and gardens, “from the service corridors to the ornamental lakes,” explaining how “Roman palaces were built for dining, with multiple entertainment suites.” Beard follows emperors on their travels (Hadrian managed to visit most of the empire), depicts them at chariot races, introduces their spouses and lovers, and describes the massive retinue of slaves, freedmen, soldiers, and secretaries who kept the imperial system going. Noting that the way emperors were remembered depended on the attitude of their successors (they were glorified after a peaceful succession, vilified as tyrants and perverts when violently replaced), Beard acknowledges how uncertain the modern picture of them remains, despite vast archival and archaeological evidence. Still, she manages to paint a nuanced and holistic portrait. This immersive account is a treat for history buffs. (Oct.)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Meredith Cummings
"The queen classicist . . . is back . . . Leave it to Ms. Beard to educate and dispel . . . [She] artfully walks the line between academic scholar and patient teacher . . . ’Emperor of Rome’ was not built in a day. Readers can be grateful for Ms. Beard’s rigorous, thoughtful work."
Financial Times - Martin Wolf
"[A] beautifully written product of a lifetime of deep scholarly learning . . . magisterial."
New York Times Book Review
"A Cambridge professor and a television lecturer of irresistible salty charm."
The New Yorker
"Troll slayer."
Independent Whig.
"Beard informs and entertains without ever patronizing her readers. What she touches turns to light."
Financial Times
"An irrepressible enthusiast with a refreshing disregard for convention."
New York Times - Jennifer Szalai
"If social media is to be believed, men can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire, particularly its ‘alpha male’ elements. Anyone similarly obsessed would do well to pick up a copy of 'Emperor of Rome,' an erudite and entertaining new book by the redoubtable classics scholar and feminist Mary Beard... Beard, a consummate storyteller, finds ‘ancient gossip’ understandably hard to resist. Such stories also free her up to pursue her subject thematically instead chronologically, pointing not just to differences among the emperors but also similarities.... As a writer, Beard is so appealing and approachable that even the recalcitrant reader who previously gave not a single thought to the Roman Empire will warm to her subject... Beard leads by example, taking care to tell us what we can and cannot know — a kind of counterprogramming to the distortions of one-man rule."
Wall Street Journal - Kyle Harper
"Her gifts for putting serious scholarship into accessible terms, for bringing a critical eye to the study of classics without being a scold (while still making the study of the ancient world seem entertaining) has translated well to TV and a spate of books admired by specialists and the wider public alike.... Beard returns to subjects she has treated throughout her career (imperial portraiture, Roman triumphs, deification). Each of the themes offers a vivid way to re-examine what we know, and don’t, about life at the top.... Beard punctuates her erudite but easy prose with striking turns of phrase and arresting observations.... Emperor of Rome is a masterly group portrait, an invitation to think skeptically but not contemptuously of a familiar civilization."
Guardian
"What she says is always powerful and interesting."
The Guardian - Kathryn Hughes
"By the end of this thrilling book we are no nearer to looking the emperor in the eye. But we are much closer to understanding what he was for. Leaning into all the wild stories rather than disregarding them as so much distasteful waste, Beard does a wonderful job of taking us into the maelstrom of fantasy, desire and projection that swirled around the rulers of ancient Rome."
New York Times
"Battling back her antagonists [Beard has become] something of a folk hero."
Telegraph - Honor Cargill-Martin
"Five stars... [S]uperb . . . an extraordinary investigation into the gulf between the experience and the narrative of Roman autocracy."
Stephanie McCarter
"Throughout, it is clear that Beard — a decorated retired Cambridge professor (and blogger and TV presenter), who excels at making the ancient world accessible to nonspecialist audiences — is herself deeply intrigued by the Roman emperor.... Perhaps most interestingly, a study of the emperor illuminates the lives of the nonelite in surprising ways.... What ultimately emerges in these rigorously researched pages is an account that gives life to an often shadowy yet captivating figure. Beard uses the enduring fascination that the Roman emperor generates as a hook to get us to think more deeply about how the Romans articulated and exercised power, and how one-man rule reverberated through every level of society. Above all, she makes her readers rethink any simplistic notions they may have about what it meant to be the emperor of Rome."
FEBRUARY 2024 - AudioFile
Mary Beard's audiobook examines the various roles of the emperor during the first three hundred years of the Roman Empire. Her voice and British accent are pleasant, and a slight lisp is not distracting. Her delivery can be a bit slow, but the pace helps comprehension and is easy to get used to. She smoothly matches tone, emphasis, and the shaping of phrases to the text while still falling at times into repetitive patterns of British intonation. The small defects in her performance don't prevent her thoughtful and amiable delivery from being enjoyable as she shares the fruits of her long study of classical history. W.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-07-18
Bookshelves groan under the weight of accounts of Roman emperors, but when Beard decides to add another, readers should perk up.
Ancient history specialist Beard, author of SPQR, Twelve Caesars, and other acclaimed books, ably conveys the difficulty of examining thousands of papyri as well as stone and bronze inscriptions dug out by archaeologists, many still unread. She emphasizes the empire’s crippling weakness that was never corrected: succession. Later, European thrones passed to the eldest child, which assured stability if not competence, but this was never the Roman system. Rarely did a son follow his father; more often, an emperor legally adopted a designated successor. When this happened, leadership tended to pass smoothly, but many admired emperors owed their position to assassination, civil war, mass murder, and assorted skullduggery. Beard maintains that this answers an age-old puzzle: why Roman emperors are pronounced either “good” or “bad.” In reality, emperors succeeded by their chosen candidate ended up with a broadly favorable reputation; no one dared offend the current ruler. Having covered the big picture in SPQR and not wanting to repeat herself, Beard focuses on the details of how emperors lived, governed, traveled, dined, and amused themselves, and the result is a mixed bag. Chapters on imperial dining rooms and imperial palaces reveal the impressive skill of archaeologists in resurrecting crumbling ruins, but they also contain more architectural minutiae than casual readers will want. An emperor’s face appears on thousands of surviving sculptures and millions of coins and bric-a-brac, but few readers will be surprised to learn that none are accurate portraits. Beard is deft in her exploration of imperial bureaucracy, showing how it dealt with an avalanche of paperwork from distant officials, cities, military leaders, and individuals in an era with no postal service. Emperors’ deaths, natural or otherwise, led to fascinating consequences.
A sometimes-delightful Roman miscellany.
