SPQR: The History of Ancient Rome

Books on the history of Ancient Rome either scare the unaccustomed reader with rows of unfamiliar names, concepts, and places, or oversimplify everything. Mary Beard offers a different approach: we quickly immerse ourselves in the fascinating history that is over 2000 years away from us; we know little about it, but it is still the foundation of almost all modern political systems in the world. The introduction will not be easy, but it is necessary: without knowing anything about Ancient Rome, we cannot understand the present.
Victor Sonkin,
author of the book "Here Was Rome", laureate of the "Enlightener" award

Thanks to Mary Beard, the distant past seems alive and captivating. She has an amazing ability to convince that antiquity is a worthy topic for discussion.
Sunday Times

We encounter images and history of Ancient Rome in science, literature, and art. But how closely do our representations of the era, on which all Western civilization relies, match reality? Leading world expert on ancient history, Mary Beard, in her book "SPQR: The History of Ancient Rome", explains why Roman history is so important to us, how a small, unremarkable town in Central Italy turned into an empire spanning three continents.
The title "SPQR" is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase senatus populus que romanus, meaning "the Senate and People of Rome". The Senate inspired the names of modern legislative assemblies around the world.
SPQR is a book about Rome and how it maintained its dominion for several centuries, about its inhabitants, emperors, and conspirators. By describing the relationships between power and the individual, political structure and conflicts, the formation of statehood and empire, famous and unknown Romans, the author uses scientific data to debunk myths.
The narrative of Ancient Roman history begins in the middle of the 1st century BC, when Rome was already a vast metropolis with a population of over a million residents, with the foreshadowing of a coup and a description of Cicero's star moment. It concludes with the climactic moment in 212 AD, when Emperor Caracalla granted all free residents of the Roman Empire the right to full Roman citizenship, eliminating the distinctions between victors and the defeated.

Why the book is worth reading
- It contains all the best elements that readers can find in popular science literature: deep and comprehensive knowledge of the subject, magnificent language, and a sense of the pulse of everyday life.
- With the increasing number of discoveries uncovered in the ground, underground waters, and even in libraries, the historiography of Ancient Rome has undergone significant changes in the last 50 years. The book contains current scientific data.
- This book is a historical spectacle, a connection between the past and present. It is astonishing how many similar events and parallels to the present day readers will find in the story of Ancient Rome.

About the author
Mary Beard is a professor of Ancient History at the University of Cambridge, editor of the classics section of The Times Literary Supplement (the literary supplement to The Times). Having gained recognition in the global scientific community, she became a member of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received the highest honors: the Order of the British Empire, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Princess of Asturias Award.