Sifting myth from fact in dealing with the early history of the city, she enlivens-and deepens-scholarly debates by demonstrating how the Romans themselves shaped their legendary beginnings to short-term political ends. Beard is a sure-footed guide through arcane material that, in other hands, would grow tedious. A triumphant Roman read that is sure to appear on school curricula and holiday wishlists alike., By the time Beard has finished, she has explored not only archaic, republican, and imperial Rome, but the eastern and western provinces over which it eventually won control.She moves with ease and mastery though archaeology, numismatics, and philology, as well as a mass of written documents on stone and papyrus., A masterful new chronicle. And it evolved into just the kind of mixed system that sophisticated commentators like Aristotle and Polybius approved of., Monumental. Yet Beard, who doubles as a Cambridge professor and a television lecturer of irresistible salty charm, shows us how the Roman Republic got underway at almost the same time as the Athenian democracy. We tend to think of the Romans as coarser successors to the Greeks. Lovers of Roman history will revel in this work, and new students will quickly become devotees., In SPQR, her wonderful concise history, Mary Beard unpacks the secrets of the city's success with a crisp and merciless clarity that I have not seen equaled anywhere else. Beard's enthusiasm for her subject is infectious.
She shows us how to engage with the history, culture, and controversies that made Rome-and why it still matters. She is able to step back to see the entire Roman world. Is no myth builder she is a scholar who reaches down-to-earth conclusions based on her years of dedication to her subject.
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