Beard is a classicist and has become one of the most widely known “public historians” in the English-speaking world. Her field is ancient Rome and her previous book, _SPQR,_ which won awards and was a best seller, provided a thought-provoking and highly readable overview of how Rome was founded and how it evolved over its first thousand years into the largest and most powerful political entity of the ancient world. This volume, more of a companion work than a sequel, examines the Roman imperial system from Julius Caesar, a dictator who made one-man rule acceptable to the Romans, and his nephew, Octavian (Augustus), the first actual “emperor,” through almost three centuries and thirty rulers to Alexander Severus. After Alexander, the Roman imperial system changed rapidly and dramatically into something quite different, but the idea of one-man rule itself was accepted by all levels of society until the fall of the Eastern Empire to the Ottomans in 1453.

This isn’t just a collective biography of monarchs, though -- that’s been done hundreds of times and we really don’t need another one -- but an exploration of how the imperial system developed, how it functioned, what the emperors did day-to-day, how they were viewed by their subjects, how the succession was managed from one emperor to the next, and who actually ran an empire that might take several months for news and the ruler’s orders to travel across.

As in the earlier book, the author’s plan is to address these topics from on high, drawing explanatory examples from throughout the period under discussion. Nearly all of this is based, of course, on the surviving writings of a number of Roman historians who often were talking about events during their own lifetimes -- and there’s more of that material still around than you might think, from famous public speeches to private notes and compendiums of case law. She also points out that all those authors were members of the elite -- the senatorial class -- so there’s an obvious inherent bias. She also considers probably fictional anecdotes and obvious personal attacks because they tell us as much about both the author and his imperial subject as a dryly factual account would do.

But she also makes it clear that while primogeniture was the rule in Europe in later centuries (you were stuck with the eldest male child, like it or not), the Emperors of Rome preferred to “adopt” a successor -- and the word meant something quite different to them than it does to us. But while one could thereby pick and choose the best man for the job, this also brought a great deal of pressure to bear in making the selection. And if it was a hostile takeover by assassination, the new incumbent usually found it politically necessary to spread scurrilous stories about his predecessor -- and it’s those stories that have come down to us.

That’s only a sampling of the subjects Beard delves into, and by the time you finish the volume, you’ll have a list of things to think about. My undergraduate degree was in Classical History (“G & R” -- Greek and Roman -- as we called it), and while graduate school took me in a somewhat different direction, I’ve never lost my interest in how the world of the Romans worked. Beard is a real find for people like me. I’ll be very interested to see what she takes on next.

Very interesting read. I did not think there would be much primary sources associated with the rules or lives of the Roman emperors, but I was surprised by what Beard was able to piece together from other sources. Some of the information seemed to repeat at times, but this was an enjoyable book and I learned quite a bit from it.

"Emperor of Rome" is the first book I’ve read that's written by Prof Mary Beard. It provides a fairly good overview of Roman Emperors, their foibles, excesses, and eccentricities. My only issue with the book was that it moved too quickly, covering a large period of history in a rapid fashion. I suppose some of this pacing is by design. Prof Mary Beard’s writing is very engaging and keeps the reader engrossed. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a swift overview of Roman imperial history.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This meticulously researched and brilliantly written book transports readers back in time, offering an engaging, insightful, and comprehensive look at the fascinating world of ancient Rome. I am consistently impressed by Mary Beard's ability to write in a way that is both accessible to someone with no background in the subject but also interesting for a classics student. She skillfully weaves together a tapestry of historical events, anecdotes, and cultural insights to provide a new perspective on the position of emperor. Her attention to detail is wonderful, making the reader feel like they are right there in the heart of ancient Rome.

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

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.

An expansive read on the history of Rome's emperors. I thoroughly enjoyed this title. And have enjoyed Beard's previous work as well. Highly recommended.

What we know about what we know about the Emperor

Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World is the second book by Mary Beard that I have read -- the first was SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. I have, however, read a bunch of books about Roman history. (I think the first was Isaac Asimov's The Roman Republic, which I read as a high-school student sometime in the 1970s.) Beard's work is quite distinct from most Roman history for popular audiences, though, because instead of telling you "This happened, then this happened, then this..", she tells you "Here are our sources of information. This is what they may mean."

SPQR focused more on the Roman Republic than the empire. And by far the main lesson was, "Our sources are scanty... We really don't know for sure much of anything about the early history of Rome. Most of what other popular historians claim to be certainly true is probably wrong." Emperor of Rome, though is different, because there are vast troves of documents, inscriptions, and works of art from the Roman Empire, and much of that corpus focuses on the Emperor. Thus Emperor of Rome has a bit the feel of "lamppost science", which comes from an old joke about looking for your keys where the light shines, even if you know you lost them somewhere else. Beard makes it clear that she is not more interested in the Emperor himself than in any other Roman, but that she is using his prominence as a light to illuminate the rest of the Romans.

On 1-Sep-100 the prominent Roman Pliny made a speech in the Senate praising then-Emperor Trajan. A written record of this speech survives, now known as the Panegyric. In it Pliny paints a comically flattering portrait of the Emperor. Beard uses this information cleverly. She doesn't take it as anything close to an accurate character sketch of Trajan. Pliny is telling Trajan what he thinks Trajan wants to hear. But there's a pony in there! The Panegyric reveals what Pliny thinks Trajan wants to hear! It reveals what the Romans thought an ideal Emperor ought to be. That is, in its own way, more interesting and useful information than knowing the personality of one Emperor.

Perhaps Beard's strongest conclusion is that the Emperor's main job was to put on a show. In an epilog, she writes

"Autocracy ... upturns the 'natural' order of things and replaces reality with sham, undermining your trust in what you think you see.

"I have often insisted that ancient Rome has very few direct lessons for us, in the sense that we cannot turn to it for ready-made solutions to our problems. The Romans will not, and cannot, give us the answers. But exploring their world does help us to see our own differently. While I have been writing Emperor of Rome over the last few years, I have thought hard about the view of autocracy as fundamentally a fake, a sham, a distorting mirror. It has helped me to understand ancient Roman political culture better -- and has opened my eyes to the politics of the modern world too."*

I thank NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an advance reader copy of Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World. This review expresses my honest opinions. Release date: 24- Oct-2023.

*Quotes are from an advance reader copy and may change before publication. This review will will be corrected if necessary on the 24-Oct-2023 release date.

Many people can name an emperor of the Roman Empire even more than two thousand years after they lived, and are familiar with the stories of the excesses of their power. But what did being emperor actually entail?

In this book, historian Mary Beard argues that being emperor in many ways meant playing the part of ’emperor,’ in the way that the Roman people saw them – the person who wore the garment being sometimes interchangeable. It was an interesting thesis that really pointed out how different politics in Rome were, though as I read I noticed plenty of parallels to more recent history.

I thought the author did a good job of taking us into the alien past and showing us quite how alien it was. Her Rome is a slave society full of double-thinking and whole-hearted lip service to self-professed ideals, where an emperor is both all-powerful as well as a common man like any other. I liked how the book was not organized chronologically but instead by aspect of being emperor, so bridging the gap between different regimes and allowing us to see how things evolved and things stayed the same.

However, I wish that the book had been a little longer. This is popular history, not an academic study, and the author has a lot of ground to cover, but unfortunately this means she skims past some stories and ideas that could have been explored further. I also found the writing a little dry on occasion, and it was hard to keep track of the emperors and what they did sometimes because of their out-of-order treatment. The nature of being emperor means that they are supposed to blend into each other sometimes, but without much knowledge about some of these men, they blended confusingly at times.

Beard always writes highly accessible texts that appeal to both academic audiences and those with a casual interest in the subject. Beard covers the 'lesser known' Emperors in excellent detail and gives a vivid account of the actual practice of politics in Rome.

Mary Beard has once again written a fascinating book about ancient Rome. However, it is not for the casual fan of Roman history. Beard is one of the most eminent scholars in this field so you know that you will be taking a deep dive into the subject. If you are interested in Roman emperors and their ancient society you will be delighted in the amazing research that Beard has done. The politics, the buildings and their uses, behind the scenes of court life from the elite rulers to the lowly slaves, the role of women, the day to day life of being emperor…and so much more: Beard explores the emperors’ lives and their role in the lives of the Romans as well as the rest of the ancient world. This is a dense book with a massive amount of detailed exploration of these areas, perfect for anyone who can’t get enough of this pivotal time in human history.

Thank you NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Co for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review.

Review to be published on social media closer to pub date.

Few classicists have done more to make the ancient world accessible to moderns than Mary Beard. Whether in print or on television or on social media, she has excelled at demonstrating the extent to which the world of ancient Rome continues to be an enduring source of fascination for those of us living in its shadow. This is why I was particularly excited to be given an advance copy of her forthcoming book The Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World, which is due out later this year. Bitingly funny, deeply incisive and, more than anything else, truly pleasurable to read, this is popular history as it should be done.

Beard is very upfront what her book is not. It is not, as so many other books about the subject have tended to be, a recitation of the biographies of the various Roman emperors from Augustus to Alexander Severus in chronological order, and thank goodness for that! No, Emperor of Rome is, instead, an examination of the institution of the emperor: how it worked, who made it work, and how we know so much about them when so much of antiquity has been lost to the ravages of time.

To be sure, there are many biographical details scattered throughout the books chapters, such as the moment when, upon his death, Vespasian was said to exclaim that he was becoming a god, or the rumored sexual escapades of the young Elagabalus, who inherited the throne due in large part to the machinations of his mother and grandmother (Julia Sohaemias and Julia Maeasa, respectively). However, Beard digs beneath the surface of these biographical anecdotes to get at the deeper issue of what these particular vignettes suggested about the way that Romans viewed their leader.

And, while the book is primarily focused on the figure of the emperor himself, Beard is also adept at turning her discerning eye to those who were responsible for making him who he was. She shines a piercing light on the inner workings of power in the Roman Empire, wherein power was far less centralized than we might assume. When the emperor wasn’t leading the legions of battle, he was often in the palace, and he often relied on a group of freedmen and others to help respond to various issues that arose in his domains. Though he might not have been a pencil-pusher, Beard shows that he was far from the all-knowing and all-seeing despot he has been understood to be (and as some, like Domitian, wanted to be seen as).

In addition to the various secretaries who undertook the work of helping administer the empire, Emperor of Rome also looks at the various other people who were in the emperor’s orbit. We meet the wide variety of people who often spent their entire life in the service of the imperial person, sometimes through several subsequent rulers. Though these figures might have been left out of the official record, Beard has a knack for looking beyond the usual suspects to discover information about the ancient world,

Of course, Mary Beard doesn’t ignore the Roman women who were also a key part of the imperial mystique. After all, it’s hard to imagine the rule of Augustus without being aware of the influence of his wife Livia, who has become a byword for female imperial cunning (thanks in large part to the work of Robert Graves and his book I, Claudius, as well as to the current series, Domina). As Beard demonstrates, they often played a significant role in the iconography of the imperial cult, even as they also wielded significant influence behind the scenes as well.

Though Beard does pay a great deal of attention to the people who made the emperor, she also does ask some pertinent questions about the man himself. Just how comfortable a position would it be, if one was seated at the apex of the Roman world? True, there was a significant amount of power involved in this position but, as Beard rightly points out, it could also be something of a prison. Not only does great power come with great responsibility; it also comes with significant restrictions, particularly when one is in the public eye at all times and is subject to constant importuning from various constituencies.

As one would expect from a responsible historian, Beard is honest about the things that we can never know for sure about the people of antiquity. Much of what we know about the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, for example, comes from the poison pen of Tacitus and the juicy palace gossip of Suetonius, the former of whom had something of an axe to grind against the institution of the emperor and the latter was more concerned with conveying salacious tales from the halls of power than in strict accuracy. Fortunately, Beard draws not just on written texts for her history but also on a wide range of material culture and, as she wryly points out, it was impossible for a resident of the Roman Empire to not be aware of the man who ruled, even if he was far away. In addition to statues, his face was on everything from coins to jewelry.

One of the things I always appreciate the most about Beard’s work is how she clearly has a great passion for both the world of the Romans and for making such a world explicable to us. Strange as the Romans were in many ways–and she makes no secret of the fact that they were very odd indeed!--there is still much about them that feels so familiar. Part of this, I think, comes from the fact that they are just so present, in the form of the ruins which dot the landscape and the many statues that survive to adorn museums (many of them of either Augustus or Antinous, the lover of Hadrian). In Emperor of Rome, we find out that the ancient autocrats who were so fascinating to the ancients were, after all, merely mortals, after all. It’s a lesson that, as Beard points out, modern autocrats would do well to heed.

Mary Beard is fantastic at conveying Roman history in a comprehensive but engaging manner. I think I preferred SPQR a bit more, because I'm more interested in that period. But Beard handles the Empire with care, wit, and erudition.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley

Who doesn’t love reading stories of the ancient Roman emperors? You get sex, incest, murder, more sex, lots of murder, plots – so many plots, and crazy people who make their horses rulers or something.
Honesty, it was somewhat disappointing when I found that I Claudius was not historically accurate, and that apparently they kept filming because the actors were having a fun time camping it up.
It also has Patrick Stewart with hair, so there’s that.
I already knew about Claudius before reading Dr. Mary Beard’s new book about the Emperors of Rome. It is not a biography of each Roman Emperor (that would be a thick book), it is a look at the office of Emperor and how those in the Roman world might have view the emperor in question.
Oh, don’t worry, she spills tea, even if at times she notes that the tea being split might not have been split at all. But you know what I mean.
We get in an in depth look at where the Emperors lived, how they did (or did not) do their job, what the women were up to, and how others might have looked at the emperors. In the process, Beard presents possible alternative ways to look at various emperors as well as different ways to look at their various actions. It isn’t a scandal ridden I, Claudius, but a readable, enjoyable history. It makes you want to go to a Mary Beard lecture because you learn much and have a laugh while doing it.

Unlike other histories of the Roman Emperors that focus on the Julian-Claudians or on the Byzantine Emperors, this work is one of the few after Mike Duncan’s History of Rome podcast to bring the public information on the less well known Princeps and the only one to show the Emperors weren’t rulers with power like Louis XIV.