'Pacy witty and authoritative' Jonathan Freedland 'In her hands ancient history becomes a
vivid avenue of approach to a burning modern-world concern... a powerful and important book'
Daily Telegraph A superb and illuminating history of Imperial Rome's most important women -
dispelling the myths and misogyny that have distorted their reputations for over 2000 years.
Writer activist and journalist Joan Smith has worked for years to raise awareness of violence
against women and girls and has been instrumental in bringing the innate misogyny of the
police to public attention. Unfortunately She Was a Nymphomaniac reinterprets the bloody
violent story of twenty-three women closely associated with the Julio-Claudian emperors of
Rome. Fewer than half a dozen of them can be said with any confidence to have died of natural
causes. These were the wives mothers and daughters of the emperors from Augustus to Nero via
their 'mad' relative Caligula. They were the most privileged women of their time but their
lives were overshadowed dominated and controlled by these men. Raped killed ripped apart
from their children and mostly airbrushed from history Joan Smith brings their extraordinary
and tragic stories back into focus. There are no nymphomaniacs here. Instead the book pieces
together the human stories showing how they struggled for control of their lives at a time
when both the law and culture were stacked against them. These women shared in a spirited
inspiring and sometimes reckless resistance to male authority. Smith brings to this history not
only a fresh interpretation of the original texts but also an understanding of what we know now
about the mechanics of domestic abuse. The way these women have been misrepresented for two
thousand years speaks volumes not just about ancient misogyny but the origin and persistence of
attitudes that continue to blight women's lives today.
