SPQR

A History of Ancient Rome

By: Mary Beard

Narrated by: Phyllida Nash

A sweeping, revisionist history of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists.

Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, a "mixture of luxury and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and murderous civil war" that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria. Yet how did all this emerge from what was once an insignificant village in central Italy?

In SPQR, world-renowned classicist Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even 2,000 years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, and beauty. From the foundational myth of Romulus and Remus to 212 CE, nearly a thousand years later, when the emperor Caracalla gave Roman citizenship to every free inhabitant of the empire, SPQR (the abbreviation of "The Senate and People of Rome") not just examines how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries by exploring how the Romans thought of themselves: how they challenged the idea of imperial rule, how they responded to terrorism and revolution, and how they invented a new idea of citizenship and nation.

Opening the audiobook in 63 BCE with the famous clash between the populist aristocrat Catiline and Cicero, the renowned politician and orator, Beard animates this "terrorist conspiracy", which was aimed at the very heart of the republic, demonstrating how this singular event would presage the struggle between democracy and autocracy that would come to define much of Rome's subsequent history. Illustrating how a classical democracy yielded to a self-confident and self-critical empire, SPQR reintroduces us, though in a wholly different way, to famous and familiar characters.

©2015 Mary Beard (P)2015 Recorded Books

Excellent Reexamination of the History of Rome

Every prior reviewer of this book has called it some version of messy and disorganized. It is neither. But its approach is more interpretive than narrative, and those readers new to Roman history will likely be lost. The goals of this book seem to be, above all, to question assumptions, and to apply rigorous skepticism to the standard version of Roman history. Thus, a reader who knows the standard version will get far more out of it.
A few examples include:
-Were Hannibal's tactics at Cannae as innovative as they're cracked up to be?
-Were small farmers really a vanishing breed in the time of the Gracchi?
-Did the bad emperors (Caligula, Nero, et al.) really have much of an impact on life at Rome?
She brings to bear all sorts of new and newish research, showing her work by explaining why we know what we do, and what evidence we actually have, vs. what assumptions have been spuriously made in the past. Nothing is simply stated as fact, as in so many older accounts. This is presumably what has lead others to call it disorganized, but it is in fact the book's greatest strength.
Her examination of the legendary, or pre-historic period of Rome -- the times of Romulus and the kings, is particularly insightful: the best assessment I have read of a period at which most historians simply throw up their hands and say, "we just don't know."
All told, this may be my favorite book on Roman history… It's not for beginners, but I'd recommend it to anyone as the SECOND book on Roman history to read!

excellent history and a bit of woman's perspective

overall I just enjoyed to listening and I don't want to make too much of the authors gender but I noticed some difference.
The author spent more time describing how common people lived and how women lived. there was no feminist revision, such as we see in fiction with women reimagined as great warrior princesses. just a genuine interest and occasional focus on women great and common and what their lives may have been like. it was refreshing and compelling.

Beard resuscitates the Romans for modern ears.

Where does SPQR rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

SPQR ranks in the mid-range, but the author and topic is near the top of my own interests. Well worth a listen, but it reads better than it listens.

Did Phyllida Nash do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Well, no, but that is beside the point here. I WILL say this about Ms. Nash: To my American ears, her accent and inflection give me the impression of an older middle class British lady who has a naughty bawdy secret to tell me. She does a good job of reading, but this particular genre isn't her bailiywick.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I enjoyed working through it and then re listening to a number of chapters after I listened to the whole thing.

Any additional comments?

There are a lot of tone shifts and obvious re-dubs and corrections throughout the work. So one second the tone of the narrators voice is very bright and high and the next it is lower and shifted down. For a second it is a little off-putting, but you get used to it.

Not your typical narrative history

I enjoyed this book as it deviated from much of the narrative history that is typical of audiobooks on Rome and is more of an expanded essay.

Excellent primer on the history of Rome

This is an excellent history of Rome and it's people. I especially, enjoyed the discussion of the founding of Rome and the peoples who would join together to form this once mighty empire.