Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World

The best-selling author of The Fires of Vesuvius presents a comprehensive history of the social and political world of the Roman emperors including Julius Caesar, Nero, Alexander Severus, Caligula, and Marcus Aurelius.

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LibraryThing member Anniik

TW/CW: Death, murder, assassination, talk of sex and sexual assault, mentions of incest, torture

RATING: 5/5

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily giving an honest review.

Emperor of Rome is a non-fiction book that examines the Emperors of Rome from the time of

Julius Caesar to the death of Alexander Severus. It is a fascinating book that does not follow a strict chronological timeline, but instead looks at different topics and how different issues were dealt with by different Emperors.

Examining topics such as politics with dining and the foods that were eaten to the actual bureaucratic work that Emperors had to do to keep Rome working, it is far more interesting and engaging than many dry histories.

Written for a non-academic audience, it is easy to follow and understand. The author herself states that in this book, dates and names are relatively unimportant, which is a nice change from some books on Rome I’ve read. I found it very interesting to instead look at topics, and to get a deep look at the actual lives of Roman Emperors in contrast to books that are all about military campaigns and assassinations.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys social history and to people interested in the lives of Roman Emperors.

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LibraryThing member Eavans

The Emperor of Rome follows the lifestyle, mythologies, supporting characters that made a Roman Emperor a Roman Emperor. The book is framed by the peculiar written history of Elagabalus, the infamously evil, infamously lascivious emperor who (we're told) wished to become a woman. I'm embarrassed to

say I'd fallen for the story, and Beard's thesis throughout challenges the idea of basically everything we know about emperors as we know it.

The author, through thematic chapters rather than chronological, shows the political machinations underpinning the stories that have been passed down for nearly two millennia. As the chapters are organized by themes, there are some very interesting ones (and less interesting ones). As always, I'm drawn to information on the lower classes and women, but overall it is a solid sampling of the world of what a Roman Emperor was supposed to be.

While I am rating this 3.5 stars here, it was a lot less engaging than SPQR. I often took breaks with it over the month and a half it took to get through, which never happened with the former book. I rate quite harshly in comparison to other readers, so I have to reiterate that The Emperor of Rome is a solid book worth picking up, but if it drags for you, don't feel bad. The thematic framing is good for casual reading but makes it very difficult to ground yourself in a period for vigorous learning. It's not so much a historical text in the traditional way but a social one. It's a very minute difference in this text, but nevertheless something I noticed.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

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LibraryThing member annbury

Great fun and highly informative. Maybe not quite as good as SPQR, but well worth reading.

LibraryThing member KallieGrace

I loved SPQR so I was excited to see another book by Beard on the topic. This time focusing on the leadership rather than the citizens. I loved that this is broken into sections such as food, religion, entertainment, rather than a dry chronology of each emperor. She even says not to worry who did

what, they're all very similar and can be thought of as one in many cases.

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LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla

The author makes her intentions very clear; this is not a linear, chronological narrative, but an examination of the institution of one-man rule in Rome as it was experienced by the men who occupied the post during the first and second centuries. It concentrates on how the office functioned, the

men's quotidian lives, and how they were chosen (and, often, deposed). Beard writes in an informal, breezy, sometimes salty style which is quite winning, and the information here is pretty unique, to my knowledge. The closest thing to a criticism I would have is that, in her close examinations of the mundane, sometimes the topics get a little, well, mundane; I particularly could have dome without the longish chapter on palace architecture, not exactly on topic and which made a pretty long book even longer. Still, I enjoyed this throughout and gained a great deal from her approach.

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