A Rome of One's Own

The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire

By: Emma Southon

Narrated by: Danielle Cohen

Length: 14 hrs

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a wildly entertaining new history of Rome that uses the lives of twenty-one extraordinary women to upend our understanding of the ancient world

The history of Rome has long been narrow and one-sided, essentially a history of “the Doing of Important Things.” It is a history of winning battles, passing laws, and “Having Important Opinions in Public.” And as far as Roman historians have been concerned, women don’t make that history. From Romulus through “the political stab-fest of the late Republic,” and then on to all the emperors, Roman historians may deign to give you a wife or a mother to show how bad things get when women get out of control, but history is more than that.

Emma Southon’s A Rome of One’s Own will correct that. This is a retelling of the history of Rome with the Important Things, but also all the things Roman history writers relegate to the background—or designate as domestic, feminine, or worthless. This is a history of individuals, twenty-one women who span the length of its territory and its centuries, who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry, lived independently or under the thumb of emperors. A social and cultural history told with humor and verve as well as a deep scholarly background, A Rome of One’s Own highlights women overlooked and misunderstood, and through them offers a fascinating and groundbreaking chronicle of the ancient world.

©2023 Emma Southon (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing

Rome (Emma’s Version)

Absolutely obsessed with this author and all of her work. Such interesting and varied stories about Roman life through the ages of its existence… Emma Southon, you never miss!!!

Another Wonderful Work

I've listened to both "A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Agrippina" by Emma Southon, and pre-ordered this title. The author manages to explain things in a way that's incredibly engaging and entertaining without compromising the actual history. While both the narrators for her previous books were good, I think this one, Danielle Cohen, is perfect for the very funny (and British) style the writer has.

This is a really great book. It's great history and great fun.

The language and the women whose stories are told .

This book was excellent. I absolutely loved it. The storytelling was rich and funny as well as thought-provoking.

Excellent stories, needlessly foul language

I very much enjoyed hearing the stories of women in Ancient Rome. The sexually gross language felt unnecessary and distracting. I’m not one to shy away from the “F” word but truly had enough of its use in a sexual context by the end.

Truly lovely. So much information and so fun to learn

I couldn’t help how fast I listened to this book because it was just so good. The pacing is perfect, informative but not overwhelming. There were some things I looked into more after hearing in the book and a ton of stuff that I’ve looked up in the past and always had unanswered questions about that Emma touched on. It’s like every question you think of, she is answering in the next sentence. This is the kind of history book we need more of. At times I felt so emotional listening to these stories about women that I can relate to today. We have always been here. It’s heartbreaking to think of the stories lost to time because women could not write down our own histories and men did not deem them meaningful. It’s such a treasure to listen to this book and learn about those that have hung on despite it all.