THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF
THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 'Extraordinary ... a
deliciously varied tapestry of detail drawn from across nearly three centuries' Telegraph
What was it really like to rule and be ruled in the Ancient Roman world? In her international
best-seller SPQR Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her
spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE)
to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE) . Emperor of Rome is not your usual chronological
account of Roman rulers one after another: the mad Caligula the monster Nero the philosopher
Marcus Aurelius. Beard asks bigger questions: What power did emperors actually have? Was the
Roman palace really so bloodstained? Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and
our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman offering an account of Roman history as it
has never been presented before.
