Rome as you've never seen it before - brazenly unconventional badly behaved and ever so
feminine. 'Hugely entertaining and illuminating' -Elodie Harper author of The Wolf Den A
WATERSTONES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023 Here's how the history of the Roman Empire usually
goes... We kick off with Romulus murdering his brother go on to Brutus overthrowing Tarquin
bounce through an appallingly tedious list of battles and generals and consuls before emerging
into the political stab-fest of the late Republic. After ' Et tu Brute? ' it runs through all
the emperors occasionally nodding to a wife or mother to show how bad things get when women
won't do as they're told until Constantine invents Christianity only for Attila the Hun to
come and ruin everything. Let's tear up this script. The history of Rome and its empire is
so much more than these 'Important Things'. In this alternative history Emma Southon tells
another story about the Romans one that lives through Vestal Virgins and sex workers business
owners and poets empresses and saints. Discover how entrepreneurial sex worker Hispala
Faecenia uncovered a conspiracy of treason human sacrifice and Bacchic orgies so wild they
would make Donna Tartt blush becoming one of Rome's unlikeliest heroes. Book yourself a
table at the House of Julia Felix and get to know Pompeii's savviest businesswoman and
restauranteur. Indulge in an array of locally sourced delicacies as you take in the wonderful
view of Mount Vesuvius... what could possibly go wrong? Join the inimitable Septimia Zenobia
who - after watching a series of incompetent psychopathic and incompetently psychopathic
emperors almost destroy the Empire - did what any of us would do. She declared herself Empress
took over half the Roman Empire and ran it herself.
